Biodistribution and imaging of fluorescently-tagged iron oxide nanoparticles in a breast cancer mouse model

摘要

Iron oxide nanoparticle (IONP) hyperthermia is an emerging treatment that shows great potential as a cancer therapy both alone and in synergy with conventional modalities. Pre-clinical studies are attempting to elucidate the mechanisms of action and distributions of IONP in various in vitro and in vivo models, however these studies would greatly benefit from real-time imaging of IONP locations both in cellular and in mammalian systems. To this end, fluorescently-tagged IONP (flONP) have been employed for real time tracking and co-registration of IONP with iron content. Starch-coated IONP were fluorescently-tagged, purified and analyzed for fluorescent signal at various concentrations. flONP were incubated with MTGB cells for varying times and cellular uptake analyzed using confocal microscopy, flow cytometry and inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). flONP were also injected into a bilateral mouse tumor model for radiation modification of tumor tissue and enhanced flONP deposition assessed using a Xenogen IVIS fluorescent imager. Results demonstrated that flONP concentrations in vitro correlated with ICP-MS iron readings. flONP could be tracked in vitro as well as in tissue samples from an in vivo model. Future work will employ whole animal fluorescent imaging to track the biodistribution of flONP over time.