A.K. Grover Presenter's Summary Background Diamonds are for ever - no matter how small. These hollow balls are fairly sturdy molecules. They are hydrophobic and hence even though they are large they can cross the cell membranes.
Bucky balls can scavenge oxygen radicals .
One bucky ball C60 molecule can scavenge 34 oxygen radicals thus making the bucky balls efficient oxygen radical sponges. However, during ischemia-reperfusion, inflammation and neurotoxicity, excess amounts of oxygen radicals are generated and these can react with a number of lipids and proteins and produce cellular damage . Any efficient means of scavenging them can lead to potential therapies for coronary disease, inflammation induced insult and glutamate neurotoxicity. In this work, the authors demonstrate the usefulness of C60-malonic acid derivatives can as oxygen radical scavengers both in vitro and in vivo. The resulting C60 molecules had C3 and D3 symmetry regioisomers .