Stimuli-responsive nanotheranostics intended for oncological diseases: In vitro evaluation of their target, diagnostic and drug release capabilities.

AZCONA, PAMELA LILIANA; MONTIEL SCHNEIDER, GABRIELA; GRÜNHUT, MARCOS; LASSALLE, VERONICA L.

NEW JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY

ROYAL SOC CHEMISTRY

Año: 2018

1144-0546

Magnetic nanotheranostics were designed from iron oxide nanoparticles (MNPs) functionalized with folic acid (FA)andloaded with Doxorubicin (Doxo) as a therapeutic agent. The Doxo incorporation was carefully examined to attainsatisfactory drug loading efficiency. The magnet-guiding ability was in vitro examined. To do this, a novel continuous flowsystem was fabricated to quantify the amount of MNPs retained in the magnet site in an environment and conditionsmimicking the bloodstream. The obtained data suggest that almost 21% of the total circulating nanoparticles wereaccumulated in target site after 45min of assay. Such amount assured the doses of Doxo commonly employed during invivo studies. Doxo release was analysed by implementing an original procedure devoted to simulate the pathwaysfollowed by MNPs once intravenous administrated. From these studies, reliable data on the amount of drug thateffectively reach the target site was obtained. The efficiency of the nanosystems as selective contrast agents in MRI wasanalysed using a clinical 1.5T equipment. Their potential as T2 weighted contrast media was demonstrated. The datacollected within this work appear as the former initial stage to validate the nanotheranostics before in vivo evaluation ofthis novel technology.