Carbon Nanoparticles and Their Biomedical Applications

This review summarizes the current knowledge on current and future applications of carbon nanoparticles in medicine. The carbon nanoparticle family has a large number of representatives with unique physicochemical properties that make them good candidates for use in clinical medicine. The best-known (and most researched) carbon nanoparticles include graphene, graphene oxide, and carbon nanotubes. The main direction of use involves medical diagnostics, which includes bioimaging and the detection of chemicals or metabolites present in the body. Since the question of nanoparticle toxicity has not been fully answered, the use of nanoparticles in the fields of therapeutics (drug delivery), regenerative medicine (cell scaffolding, tissue engineering), and vaccine production is still under research and many in vivo studies are ongoing. These preclinical studies suggest that carbon nanoparticles have great potential for diagnosis and treatment; the results show that the nanoparticles used do not have significant toxic effects; however, great caution is needed before nanoparticles are introduced into routine clinical practice.