Iron oxide nanoparticle

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIOs) have been employed as drug carriers and contrast agents for MRI due to their biocompatibility and intrinsic magnetic properties. SPIOs typically consist of an iron oxide core and a hydrophilic shell. An important obstacle that limits the use of SPIOs is their inability to reach sufficient concentration at the tumor site (DuliƄska-Litewka et al., 2019). Mahajan et al . (Mahajan et al., 2016) used SPIOs coupled with siRNA to target PLK1, an important oncogene in pancreatic cancer. SPIOs were coated with dextran to be detectable by MRI and were further conjugated with streptavidin (StAv-SPIONs). Later, they were also coupled by myristoylated polyarginine peptides to enhance intracellular delivery alongside endosomal escape and a non-immunogenic tumor-selective peptide (EPPT1) to specifically target the tumor antigen. The results revealed that these siPLK1-StAv-SPIOs can efficiently silence PLK1 expression and stop tumor progression in both in vitro and in vivo models. The delivery of siPLK1-StAv-SPIOs to the tumor site was increased, which was qualified by MRI. siPLK1-StAv-SPIOs showed lower cell toxicity compared with StAv-SPIOS without an active bioligand.
Magnetic nanoparticles can be used to convert nanoparticles into theragnostic multifunctional delivery systems in order to achieve effective real-time imaging of pancreatic cancer tissue with high-resolution.