Doxorubicin Adsorbed on Carbon Nanotubes: Helical Structure and New Release Trigger

This publication shows a Nanosurf STM application in drug delivery. Doxorubicin (Dox) is a cancer medicin and needs a drug delivery system to be transported to the cancer cells inside the human body. One possible drug delivery system is based on the adsorbtion of Dox to carbon nanotubes (CNTs). Shamaila Sadaf in the group of Prof. Lorenz Walder of the institute of Chemistry of new materials at the university of Osnabrück (Germany) revealed insights into the structure of Doxorubicin on CNTs (Dox@CNTs) in vitro that was unknown till date. She used a Nanosurf STM at ambient conditions to visualize the architecture of Dox@CNT and found that Dox forms helices of monomers (upper image) or stacked dimers (lower image). The amount of Dox can be quantified from analysis of the STM images. The study further showed that the Dox is released from the CNTs under reducing conditions.

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