Magneto-liposomes as MRI contrast agents : a systematic study of different liposomal formulations

Kostevšek, Nina (author), Cheung, Calvin C. L. (author), Serša, Igor (author), Erdani-Kreft, Mateja (author), Monaco, Ilaria (author), Comes Franchini, Mauro (author), Vidmar, Janja (author), Al-Jamal, Wafa T. (author)

The majority of the clinically approved iron oxide nanoparticles (IO NPs) used as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been withdrawn from the market either due to safety concerns or lack of profits. To address this challenge, liposomes have been used to prepare IO-based T$_2$ contrast agents. We studied the influence of different phospholipids on the relaxivity (r$_2$) values of magneto-liposomes (MLs) containing magnetic NPs in the bilayer, where a strong correlation between the bilayer fluidity and r$_2$ is clearly shown. Embedding 5-nm IO NPs in the lipid bilayer leads to a significant improvement in their relaxivity, where r$_2$ values range from 153 ± 5 s$^{−1}$ mM$^{−1}$ for DPPC/cholesterol/DSPE-PEG (96/50/4) up to 673 ± 12 s$^{−1}$ mM$^{−1}$ for DOPC/DSPE-PEG (96/4), compared to “free” IO NPs with an r$_2$ value of 16 s$^{−1}$ mM$^{−1}$, measured at 9.4 T MRI scanner. In vitro MRI measurements, together with the ICP-MS analysis, revealed MLs as highly selective contrast agents that were preferentially taken up by cancerous T24 cells, which led to an improvement in the contrast and an easier distinction between the healthy and the cancerous cells. A careful selection of the lipid bilayer to prepare MLs could offer efficient MRI contrast agents, even at very low IO NP concentrations.

• Language: English
• Keywords: liposomes, magnetic resonance imaging, iron oxide, contrast agent
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: MF - Faculty of Medicine
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2020
• Number of pages: 18 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 10, iss. 5, art. 889
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-133732
• UDC: 537
• ISSN on article: 2079-4991
• DOI: 10.3390/nano10050889
• COBISS.SI-ID: 14045955
• Publication date in RUL: 13.12.2021

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Nanomaterials
• Shortened title: Nanomaterials
• Publisher: MDPI
• ISSN: 2079-4991
• COBISS.SI-ID: 523286297

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.
• Licensing start date: 06.05.2020