By Sean Henahan, Access Excellence

TRIESTE, Italy- (Dec. 15, 1996) Buckyballs, those spherical arrangements of carbon atoms that won three chemists the Nobel prize, have never been observed in the structure of living organisms. Now, however, scientists have learned how to use the curious molecules against a variety of microorganisms that cause disease in humans.

Italian researchers conducted innovative research indicating that some buckyballs can be made active against certain bacteria and fungi. In preliminary biological tests, one in particular has been active against a variety of microorganisms, including Mycobacterium avium. Mycobacterium avium is a common infection in patients with advanced AIDS and is notoriously resistant to standard treatments.

Dr. Maurizio Prato and colleagues at the University of Trieste in Italy enlisted another well known compound, nicotine, to accomplish this task. Prato's group decided to attach the nicotine molecule to a buckyball, forming a molecule Prato calls fulleronicotine, using the buckyball's more formal name of "fullerene."

Unfortunately, like their diamond and graphite relatives, the all-carbon fullerenes are not soluble in water, which is necessary for biological testing. Fulleronicotine is also insoluble in water, but the Italian team conquered that difficulty by attaching a chain of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen atoms to the nicotine segment of the molecule.

Prato believes their process is a general approach that leads to the preparation of many other modified fullerenes, and opens the door for broad-scale testing of the biological activity of fullerene derivatives.

Fullerenes are formed when vaporized carbon condenses in an atmosphere of inert gas. The gaseous carbon is obtained e.g. by directing an intense pulse of laser light at a carbon surface. The released carbon atoms are mixed with a stream of helium gas and combine to form clusters of some few up to hundreds of atoms. The gas is then led into a vacuum chamber where it expands and is cooled to some degrees above absolute zero. The carbon clusters can then be analyzed with mass spectrometry.

The research was reported in the December 13 issue of the Journal of Organic Chemistry, a biweekly publication of the American Chemical Society.