Medical
Diagnostics | TherapeuticsThe Nano Pioneers
Though described earlier, fullerenes first became available in large enough quantities for people to study after the invention of the Huffman-Kratschmer carbon arc process in 1990. The arc creates a plasma which is the energy that drives the creation of fullerenes. Electrochemistry soon revealed the intrinsic affinity of fullerenes to trap free radicals- molecules that have an uneven number of electrons. The unpaired electron in free radicals makes them highly reactive. Fullerenes have been described as a "free radical sponge" because of their ability to absorb these reactive species.
In the early 1990s chemists discovered that it was possible to add small polar or charged groups to the fullerene surface and make them water soluble by attaching to the carbon. Professor Long Chiang in the Chemistry Department at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell published a number of papers demonstrating the antioxidant properties of these water soluble fullerenes in tissue culture and demonstrated that they could protect against damage due to ischemia in a number of animal models.
The water soluble fullerenes described were mixed isomers. Dr. Laura Dugan, Associate Professor and Chief in the Division of Geriatric Medicine at the University of California San Diego (UCSD), has investigated a tris malonate C60 compound where the distribution of the three malonate groups is unique. Dr. Dugan and her colleagues have demonstrated that this compound, C3, protects cultured neurons from oxidative stress and is effective in animal models of neurodegenerative diseases. She has also shown that C3 mimics the enzyme superoxide dismutase, and acts catalytically where each molecule can trap many radicals. When mice were fed C3 in their drinking water, their lives were extended, compared to mice that did not receive C3. These outstanding contributions revealed the potential of fullerenes upon which Luna is building products.
