Biological Applications of Fullerene Derivatives: A Brief Overview

Sa？etak Starting soon after the production of fullerenes in 1990, many efforts have been devoted to the application of C60 and its derivatives. In fact, [60]fullerene possesses a variety of interesting biological properties, such as HIV-P inhibition, DNA photocleavage, neuroprotection, apoptosis, etc. Unfortunately, the low solubility in biological fluids limits the use of these compounds as new pharmacophores for structure-activity relationship studies in medicinal Chemistry. This article briefly summarizes recent studies on the functionalization of C60 aimed at increasing water solubility as well as the preliminary studies performed on biological targets. In particular, the HIV-P inhibition, DNA photocleavage and antibacterial activity are discussed