carbon nanotube-anandamide complex exhibits sustained protective effects in an in vitro model of stroke

introduction: the therapeutic potential of anandamide (aea) for the neurological disorders may be negatively affected by its short half-life or poor solubility. the superior properties of carbon nanotubes (cnts) for controlled drug delivery, prompted us to design aea-cnts complex and assess its effect in in vitro model of ischemic stroke. methods: in this experimental study, a multi-walled cnts (mwcnts)-aea complex was prepared using amino-functionalized cooh-mwcnts and characterized by fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. pc12 cells in the presence of aea (0.5, 1, 2 μg/ml), acid- or amine-modified mwcnts, or mwcnts-aea complex (2, 5, 8 μg/ml) were exposed to 1 and 3 h oxygen-glucose deprivation (ogd) followed by 24 h re-oxygenation. in vitro cytotoxicity and oxidative stress were evaluated using three-way anova. results: aea immobilization on the aminated mwcnts was confirmed. ogd significantly reduced cell viability (p<0.001). after 3 h of ogd induction, cooh-mwcnts showed higher cytotoxicity than other mwcnts (p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001) and mwcnts-aea was more protective than aea alone (p<0.05, p<0.01). ogd increased malondialdehyde (mda) and decreased glutathione (gsh) and superoxide dismutase (sod) (p<0.001). following 1-h ogd, aea dose-dependently reduced mda (p<0.001), and elevated gsh (p<0.05, p<0.01) and sod (p<0.05, p<0.01), but aea was ineffective following 3-h ogd (p>0.05). mwcnts-aea complex was effective at both time points (mda and gsh: p<0.01, p<0.001, sod: p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001). this nanostructure was more effective than aea following longer exposure periods to ogd insult (p<0.05, p<0.01, p<0.001). conclusion: aminated mwcnts are suitable carriers for aea and provide longer- lasting effects against ogd insult.