The isolation and preparation ten years ago of the fullerenes in bulk quantities, sparked off a truly remarkable interdisciplinary research activity, encompassing diverse fields of chemistry, physics, materials science and medicinal chemistry. Pharmaceutical and biological studies have revealed that fullerene-based compounds exhibit various types of biological activity either in vitro or in vivo and are discussed in this review.
Keywords: Fullerenes, UV-Visible absorption, Photodynamic Therapy, Enzymatic Inhibition, Cell signaling, Apoptosis, Neuroprotective antioxidants, Endohedral Metallofullerenes, MRI contrast agents