Hyaluronic Acid–Stabilized Fe3O4 Nanoparticles for Promoting In Vivo Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Tumors

The use of iron oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ) nanoparticles as novel contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has attracted great interest due to their high r 2 relaxivity. However, both poor colloidal stability and lack of effective targeting ability have impeded their further expansion in the clin...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Frontiers in pharmacology 2022-07, Vol.13, p.918819-918819
Main Authors: Zhang, Weijie, Zhang, Zhongyue, Lou, Shitong, Chang, Zhiwei, Wen, Baohong, Zhang, Tao
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
active targeting
HeLa cell/tumor
hyaluronic acid
iron oxide nanoparticles
magnetic resonance imaging
Pharmacology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The use of iron oxide (Fe 3 O 4 ) nanoparticles as novel contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) has attracted great interest due to their high r 2 relaxivity. However, both poor colloidal stability and lack of effective targeting ability have impeded their further expansion in the clinics. Here, we reported the creation of hyaluronic acid (HA)-stabilized Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles prepared by a hydrothermal co-precipitation method and followed by electrostatic adsorption of HA onto the nanoparticle surface. The water-soluble HA functions not only as a stabilizer but also as a targeting ligand with high affinity for the CD44 receptor overexpressed in many tumors. The resulting HA-stabilized Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles have an estimated size of sub-20 nm as observed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) imaging and exhibited long-term colloidal stability in aqueous solution. We found that the nanoparticles are hemocompatible and cytocompatible under certain concentrations. As verified by quantifying the cellular uptake, the Fe 3 O 4 @HA nanoparticles were able to target a model cell line (HeLa cells) overexpressing the CD44 receptor through an active pathway. In addition, we showed that the nanoparticles can be used as effective contrast agents for MRI both in vitro in HeLa cells and in vivo in a xenografted HeLa tumor model in rodents. We believe that our findings shed important light on the use of active targeting ligands to improve the contrast of lesion for tumor-specific MRI in the nano-based diagnosis systems.
ISSN:1663-9812
1663-9812
DOI:10.3389/fphar.2022.918819