Bioengineered Short Carbon Nanotubes as Tumor-Targeted Carriers for Biomedical Imaging

Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in human beings. Therefore, it is important to detect specific target tumors earlier enough in the formative stages of cancer without causing negative side effects and damages to the body. In this study, we proposed bio-engineered short mussel adhesive proteins (MAPs)-carbon nanotubes (CNTs) as specific tumor-targeted carriers for biomedical imaging. Short CNT near-infrared fluorophore (NIRF) hybrid carriers that were developed accumulated in the tumors with exceptional clearance and specific targeting in less time, and these results indicated that bioengineered short CNT-based carriers have great potential for real time tumor imaging.