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Nanodiamonds are produced through controlled explosions or graphite-based processes and are used in industrial applications. They have potential medical uses, including delivering and monitoring chemotherapy drugs. Northwestern University researchers found that nanodiamonds can enhance the effectiveness of chemotherapy drugs and can be easily washed out of the urinary tract. MRI can be used to monitor the location and effects of the drugs.
Nanodiamond, also sometimes called detonation nanodiamond (DND) or ultradisperse diamond (UDD), is produced as the result of a carefully controlled explosion. Nanodiamonds are usually extracted from the resulting soot from the explosion through the use of pressure, heat and acid. Alternatively, nanodiamonds can also be produced using graphite-based processes. These tiny diamonds are used in industrial applications involving a wide variety of products. Since the late 20th century, research in medical applications has revealed that nanodiamonds are effective agents for both the delivery and monitoring of chemotherapy drugs.
To produce nanodiamonds, carbon is detonated with a mixture of TNT and RDX, two powerful explosives, resulting in the production of a sooty material containing nanodiamonds approximately 5 nanometers (nm) in size. The vessel containing the blast is rapidly cooled using compressed carbon dioxide, water or air, as faster cooling produces a higher diamond yield. The diamond-laden soot is then placed in an autoclave and boiled in high-pressure acid to remove nearly all impurities such as contaminant metals from the blast vessel and inferior grade carbon incapable of producing diamonds. Nanodiamonds can also be synthesized using suspended graphite subjected to ultrasonic cavitation or a pulsating laser beam.
Nanodiamonds have a very large surface area relative to their size so that hydrocarbon and water molecules attach easily to them. Nanodiamond particles also tend to clump and adhere strongly to each other. These features make them difficult to manage, while also offering them many potential industrial and medical applications. Industrially, nanodiamond is used in dry lubricants, plastic and rubber reinforcements and polishing, as well as in lapping processes and as an additive to motor oils.
A group of researchers from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, has shown that nanodiamonds offer great medical potential when used in conjunction with anticancer chemotherapy drugs. Thanks to their purity, diamonds are not attacked by the immune system while they strongly bind to molecules containing medicines, thus overcoming the tendency of tumors to resist medicines. Thanks to its small size, the nanodiamond is easily washed out of the urinary tract after chemotherapy treatments. Tests on laboratory mice with drug-resistant tumors have shown that drugs administered with nanodiamonds remain in the bloodstream more than ten times longer, producing substantially greater tumor shrinkage. By adding contrast agents to nanodiamonds and using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the Northwestern researchers also showed they could more accurately monitor the location and effects of chemotherapy drugs.
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