Nanotubos de carbono no tratamento da doença de Alzheimer

Abstract

Neurodegenerative diseases are a set of diseases that affect the central nervous system and develop through changes in nerve cells. The most common of these neurodegenerative diseases is Alzheimer's disease, which manifests through cognitive and memory deterioration. Because of it’s rapid evolution, it can be a fatal disease. Alzheimer's disease affects about 50 million people around the world, with a higher incidence in the elderly. The treatment is carried out through medication that are limited to the symptomatic relief of the patients. They have a low effective concentration in the brain, adverse reactions and inefficient therapeutic effects, which result in difficulities during the current treatment. This obstacle is also due to the complexity of the central nervous system and the existence of the blood-brain barrier. Nanotechnology has brought new perspectives for the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as Alzheimer's. Carbon nanotubes have diameters in the nanometer scale and have excellent physicochemical properties. As a conclusion, the goal of this work is to analyze and discuss the effectiveness of carbon nanotubes in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases, with a focus on Alzheimer's disease, through a systematic review of national and international scientific articles from the last 19 (nineteen years). Through this analysis, it was possible to verify that carbon nanotubes can be used in different ways for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease, as drug carriers, neural prostheses, biological markers, electrical interfaces and scaffolds, in addition to successfully delivering the neurotransmitter acetylcholine in the brain. Although carbon nanotubes are promising, there are still a variety of strategies to be studied and concluded for an effective application. The use of carbon nanotubes in neurodegenerative diseases opens up great scientific and commercial perspective. Because of this, the interaction mechanisms between nanostructures and biological systems, as well as their biocompatibility, needed to be explored.