Nanoparticle applications in medicine have seen a tremendous growth in the last decade. In addition to their drug targeting application and their ability to improve bioavailability of drugs, nanoparticles can be designed to allow their detection with a variety of imaging methodologies. In the current study we developed a multimodal nanoparticle platform to enable imaging guided therapy, which was evaluated in a colon cancer mouse model. This “theranostic” platform, is based on oil-in-water nanoemulsions and carries iron oxide nanocrystals for MRI, the fluorescent dye Cy7 for NIRF imaging and the hydrophobic glucocorticoid prednisolone acetate valerate (PAV) for therapeutic purposes. Angiogenesis targeted nanoemulsions functionalized with αvβ3-specific RGD-peptides were evaluated as well. When subcutaneous tumor were palpable the nanoemulsions were administered at a dose of 30 mg FeO/kg and 10 mg PAV/kg. MRI and NIRF imaging showed significant nanoparticle accumulation in the tumors, while tumor growth profiles revealed a potent inhibitory effect in all the PAV-nanoemulsions treated animals as compared to the ones treated with control nanoemulsions, the free drug or saline. In conclusion, this study demonstrated that our nanoemulsions, when loaded with PAV, iron oxide nanocrystals and Cy7, represent a flexible and unique theranostic nanoparticle platform that can be applied for imaging guided therapy of cancer.
Nanoemulsions are increasingly investigated for the delivery of hydrophobic drugs to improve their bioavailability or make their administration possible. In the current study, oil-in-water emulsions with three different mean diameters (30, 60, and 95 nm) were developed as a new multimodality nanoparticle platform for tumor targeting and imaging. To that aim, hydrophobically coated iron oxide particles were included in the soybean oil core of the nanoemulsions to enable their detection with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), while the conjugation of a near infrared fluorophore allowed optical imaging. The accumulation of this novel nanocomposite in subcutaneous human tumors in nude mice was demonstrated with MRI and fluorescence imaging in vivo, and with Perl’s staining of histological tumor sections ex vivo.
For advanced treatment of diseases such as cancer, multi component, multi functional nanoparticles hold great promise. In the current study we report the synthesis of a complex nanoparticle (NP) system with dual drug loading as well as diagnostic properties. To that aim we present a methodology where chemically modified poly(lactic co glycolic) acid (PLGA) polymer is formulated into a polymer lipid NP that contains a cytotoxic drug doxorubicin (DOX) in the polymeric core and an anti angiogenic drug sorafenib (SRF) in the lipidic corona. The NP core also contains gold nanocrystals (AuNCs) for imaging purposes and cyclodextrin molecules to maximize the DOX encapsulation in the NP core. In addition, a near infrared (NIR) Cy7 dye was incorporated in the coating. To fabricate the NP we used a microfluidics based technique that offers unique NP synthesis conditions, which allowed for encapsulation and fine tuning of optimal ratios of all the NP components. NP phantoms could be visualized with computed tomography (CT) and near infrared (NIR) fluorescence imaging. We observed timed release of the encapsulated drugs, with fast release of the corona drug SRF and delayed release of a core drug DOX. In tumor bearing mice intravenously administered NPs were found to accumulate at the tumor site by fluorescence imaging.
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