The Effect of Polyhydroxy Fullerene Derivative on Human Myeloid Leukemia K562 Cells.

The use of nanomedicines for cancer treatment has been widespread. Fullerenes have significant effects in the treatment of solid tumors. Here, we are going to study the effects of hydroxylated fullerene C60(OH)n(n = 18-22) treatment on chronic myeloid leukemia cell proliferation and investigate its toxicity. The results showed that hydroxylated fullerene C60(OH)n (n = 18-22) at low concentrations (less than 120 µM) not only had apparent toxic side effects, but also promoted the growth of K562 cells, while a high concentration of C60(OH)n had different degrees of inhibition on K562 cells. When the concentration is higher than 160 µM, the K562 cells showed morphological changes, the mitochondrial membrane potential decreased, the cell cycle was blocked in the stage of G2-phase, and cell apoptosis occurred, which may cause apoptosis, autophagy, and a variety of other damage leading to cell death. Meanwhile, it also indicated that its inhibition of solid tumors might be related to the tumor microenvironment; we verified the safety of fullerene without apparent cellular toxicity at a specific concentration.

Antitumor Activity and Potential Mechanism of Novel Fullerene Derivative Nanoparticles.

The development of novel nanoparticles as a new generation therapeutic drug platform is an active field of chemistry and cancer research. In recent years, fullerene nanoparticles have received extensive attention due to their unique physical and chemical properties. Properly modified fullerene nanoparticles have excellent biocompatibility and significant anti-tumor activity, which makes them have broad application prospects in the field of cancer therapy. Therefore, understanding the anti-tumor mechanism of fullerene nanoparticles is of great significance for the design and development of anti-tumor drugs with low toxicity and high targeting. This review has focused on various anti-tumor mechanisms of fullerene derivatives and discusses their toxicity and their distribution in organisms. Finally, the review points out some urgent problems that need solution before fullerene derivatives as a new generation of anti-tumor nano-drug platform enter clinical research.