Trojan-Horse Nanotube On-Command Intracellular Drug Delivery

A major challenge to nanomaterial-based medicine is the ability to release drugs on-command. Here, we describe an innovative drug delivery system based on carbon nanotubes (CNTs), in which compounds can be released inside cells from within the nanotube on-command by inductive heating with an external alternating current or pulsed magnetic field. Without inductive heating the drug remains safely inside the CNTs, showing no toxicity in cell viability tests. Similar to the Trojan-Horse in function, we demonstrate the delivery of a combination of chemotherapeutic agents with low aqueous solubility, paclitaxel (Taxol), and C6-ceramide, to multidrug resistant pancreatic cancer cells. Nanotube encapsulation permitted the drugs to be used at a 100 fold lower concentration compared to exogenous treatment yet achieve a comparable similar to 70% cancer kill rate.