HSA Coated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles as Drug Delivery Vehicles for Cancer Therapy

Abstract

An ongoing effort in the field of nanomedicine is to develop nanoplatforms with both imaging and therapeutic functions, the “nano-theranostics”. We have previously developed a human serum albumin (HSA) coated iron oxide nanoparticle (HINP) formula and used multiple imaging modalities to validate its tumor targeting attributes. In the current study, we sought to impart doxorubicin (Dox) onto the HINPs and to assess the potential of the conjugates as theranostic agents. In a typical preparation, we found that about 0.5 mg of Dox and 1 mg of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs, Fe content) could be loaded into 10 mg of HSA matrices. The resulting D-HINPs (Dox loaded HINPs) have a hydrodynamic size of 50 nm and are able to release Dox in a sustained fashion. More impressively, the HINPs can assist the translocation of Dox across cell membrane and even its accumulation in the nucleus. In vivo, D-HINPs retained a tumor targeting capability of HINPs, as manifested by both in vivo MRI and ex vivo immunostaining results. In a follow-up therapeutic study on a 4T1 murine breast cancer xenograft model, D-HINPs showed a striking tumor suppression effect that was comparable to Doxil and greatly outperformed free Dox. Such a strategy can be readily extended to load other types of small molecules, making HINP a promising theranostic nanoplatform.

Magnetic Nanoparticles for Precision Oncology: Theranostic Magnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Image-Guided and Targeted Cancer Therapy

“…Quan et al reported human serum albumin-stabilized IONPs for the delivery of DOX into tumors guided by MRI. A significant increase in the blood half-life of DOX and drug accumulation in tumors was observed in this study [99]. Recently, anti-CD44 antibody-targeted IONPs loaded with gemcitabine (Gem) have been produced and showed target specificity and growth inhibition of tumor cells [100].…”

Novel kojic acid-polymer-based magnetic nanocomposites for medical applications

“…10,12 Such work in cancer has forged a pathway to use magnetic nanoparticles for other medical applications. For example, several studies on model drug-loaded MNPs have been reported, including doxorubicin, [13][14][15][16] 5-aminosalicylic acid, 17 insulin, 18 10-hydroxy camptothecin, 19 gallic acid, 20 folic acid, 21 diclofenac sodium, 22 and dexamethasone. 23 It has been found that superparamagnetic MNPs are predisposed to aggregate due to strong dipole-dipole attractions.…”

Gd-Doped Superparamagnetic Magnetite Nanoparticles for Potential Cancer Theranostics

“…Among various other anticancer drugs, Doxorubicin (Dox) is widely used as a model drug. There are several methods that can be used to load Dox into nanoparticles, such as by adsorption onto nanocarrier inorganic core [93][94][95], by diffusion [95,96], or entrapment [97,98] in the coating materials and by chemical bonds [99,100] with the coating of the nanocarrier. Several modifications including surface functionalization of these SPIONs with Dox have been conducted over the last few years to investigate their efficacy [101].…”