A Los Alamos National Laboratory toxicologist and a multidisciplinary team of researchers have documented potential cellular damage from "fullerenes"soccer-ball-shaped, cage-like molecules composed of 60 carbon atoms. The team also noted that this particular type of damage might hold hope for treatment of Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, or even cancer.
The research recently appeared in Toxicology and Applied Pharmacology and represents the first-ever observation of this kind for spherical fullerenes, also known as buckyballs, which take their names from the late Buckminster Fuller because they resemble the geodesic dome concept that he popularized.
Engineered carbon nanoparticles, which include fullerenes, are increasing in use worldwide. Each buckyball is a skeletal cage of carbon about the size of a virus. They show potential for creating stronger, lighter structures or acting as tiny delivery mechanisms for designer drugs or antibiotics, among other uses. About four to five tons of carbon nanoparticles are manufactured annually.
"Nanomaterials are the 21st century revolution," said Los Alamos toxicologist Rashi Iyer, the principal research lead and coauthor of the paper. "We are going to have to live with them and deal with them, and the question becomes, 'How are we going to maximize our use of these materials and minimize their impact on us and the environment?'"
Iyer and lead author Jun Gao, also a Los Alamos toxicologist, exposed cultured human skin cells to several distinct types of buckyballs. The differences in the buckyballs lay in the spatial arrangement of short branches of molecules coming off of the main buckyball structure. One buckyball variation, called the "tris" configuration, had three molecular branches off the main structure on one hemisphere; another variation, called the "hexa" configuration, had six branches off the main structure in a roughly symmetrical arrangement; the last type was a pl
'/>"/>
| Contact: James E. Rickman jamesr@lanl.gov 505-665-9203 DOE/Los Alamos National Laboratory Source:Eurekalert |
Related biology news :
1. New study warns limited carbon market puts 20 percent of tropical forest at risk
2. Mice use specialized neurons to detect carbon dioxide in the air
3. Researchers find new taste in fruit flies: carbonated water
4. Studying component parts of living cells with carbon nanotube cellular probes
5. New membrane strips carbon dioxide from natural gas faster and better
6. Green alga genome project catalogs carbon capture machinery
7. Hungry microbes share out the carbon in the roots of plants
8. Decline in uptake of carbon emissions confirmed
9. Study reveals that nitrogen fertilizers deplete soil organic carbon
10. US fires release large amounts of carbon dioxide
11. Wildfire drives carbon levels in northern forests
| Copyright © 2003-2012 Bio-Medicine. All rights reserved. ABOUT | CONTACT US | DISCLAIMER | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS AND CONDITIONS |  |