The Chemistry and Applications of Bucky Balls

Fullerenes also called as Bucky balls are the unique class of carbon allotropes that have been studied extensively for controlled and targeted drug delivery. These are the carbon spheres composed entirely of carbon. Fullerenes which have a wide range of applications globally in nano medicine are the third allotropic form of carbon after graphite and diamond. The Fullerene family especially C60 has extraordinary chemical, physical and optical properties, which can be taken advantage for the future of nano electro mechanical systems. Fullerenes have attracted increasing attention as potential therapeutic agents because of its carbon cage structure and also have huge scope for derivatization. It can also be used as radical scavenger, antioxidant for inflammatory diseases and as a carrier for gene and drug delivery systems. Fullerenes can be formed into numerous new materials and devices. The recent discovery proved that some of the fullerene derivatives can also be used as new MRI contrast agents and they also has the capacity to stabilize the immune effector cells either for the prevention or inhibition of the release of pro inflammatory mediators that makes them promising candidates to treat several diseases such as asthma, multiple sclerosis, arthritis etc. A new class of fullerenes has been developed, which combines both the therapeutic as well as diagnostic potential to explicitly detect and kill cancer cells. The distinctive material properties and potential technological applications of Fullerenes make them the attractive candidates for diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Key words: Fullerenes, C60 derivatives, Anti-HIV, Drug carriers, Anti– microbials, Radical scavengers, MRI Contrast agents.