Development of USPIO-DM1-5D3-CF750: An image-guided targeted drug delivery system for prostate cancer therapy

Abstract

Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) is overexpressed in prostate cancers (PC) compared to normal tissues. Hence, PSMA can be used as a diagnostic biomarker and biological target to deliver drugs in PC therapy. In this study, we have conjugated ultra-small superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles with mertansine (DM1), a chemotherapeutic drug, novel anti-PSMA 5D3 antibody, and NIR CF-750 fluorophore. This multimodality image-guided drug delivery system was evaluated in PC mouse models using in vivo fluorescent imaging and MRI at 9.4T. Promising results encourage further development of targeted image-guided drug delivery platforms for PC therapy.