Carboxyfullerenes as neuroprotective agents
Laura L. Dugan, Dorothy M. Turetsky, Cheng Du, Doug Lobner, Mark Wheeler, C. Robert Almli, Clifton K.-F. Shen, Tien-Yau Luh, Dennis W. Choi, and Tien-Sung Lin
Carboxyfullerenes were able to block neuronal death in both of these apoptotic injuries. Thus, our data support the emerging concept that free radicals contribute to neuronal death in excitotoxic insults as well as injuries that result in apoptosis….Carboxyfullerenes effectively reduced neuronal death resulting from exposure to glutamate receptor agonists, NMDA or AMPA. C60 derivatives are the only class of antioxidant compounds that we have worked with to date that can fully block intense, rapidly triggered, NMDA receptor-mediated excitotoxicity in our cortical neuronal cultures.