Concise review: Nanoparticles and cellular carriers-allies in cancer imaging and cellular gene therapy?

Abstract

Ineffective treatment and poor patient management continue to plague the arena of clinical oncology. The crucial issues include inadequate treatment efficacy due to ineffective targeting of cancer deposits, systemic toxicities, suboptimal cancer detection and disease monitoring. This has led to the quest for clinically relevant, innovative multifaceted solutions such as development of targeted and traceable therapies. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) have the intrinsic ability to “home” to growing tumors and are hypoimmunogenic. Therefore, these can be used as (a) “Trojan Horses” to deliver gene therapy directly into the tumors and (b) carriers of nanoparticles to allow cell tracking and simultaneous cancer detection. The camouflage of MSC carriers can potentially tackle the issues of safety, vector, and/or transgene immunogenicity as well as nanoparticle clearance and toxicity. The versatility of the nanotechnology platform could allow cellular tracking using single or multimodal imaging modalities. Toward that end, noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is fast becoming a clinical favorite, though there is scope for improvement in its accuracy and sensitivity. In that, use of superparamagnetic iron-oxide nanoparticles (SPION) as MRI contrast enhancers may be the best option for tracking therapeutic MSC. The prospects and consequences of synergistic approaches using MSC carriers, gene therapy, and SPION in developing cancer diagnostics and therapeutics are discussed. STEM CELLS 2010; 28:1686–1702.

A strategy for simulating Electron Energy-Loss Near-Edge Structures of nanoparticles: application to size effects in Gd2O3

“…drug delivery and/or cancer therapy, see, for instance among recent overviews, [10][11][12][13][14]). Among these objects mixing organic and inor- It was shown that the O-K edge varies with the size of the particles [8], and this feature will be examined using Electron energy-Loss Near-Edge Structure (ELNES) simulations accounting for steps 1) to 3) previously enumerated.…”

Focused Magnetic Stem Cell Targeting to the Retina Using Superparamagnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

“…Recently, a number of studies have looked at magnetic targeting of cells. In cells/well) were incubated in 100 µl growth media for 24 h. Varying concentrations of SPIONs were added to vivo studies have shown that magnetic labeling, particularly with superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles the wells and after 24 h MTT (Sigma) was added for 1 h. The media was removed and cells were incubated for (SPIONs), is relatively easy and safe (22,41,42). However, limited work has been done on using magnetic 1 h in the presence of dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO; Sigma).…”

Mesenchymal Stem Cells as Therapeutic Candidates for Halting the Progression of Diabetic Nephropathy

“…MSCs show preferential migration toward sites of inflammation, injury, and cancer, suggesting that these cells may be attractive hypoimmunogenic cellular vehicles for drug and gene delivery [112], as well as trophic factors to damaged diabetic kidney.…”