Liquid Metal‐Enabled Microspheres with High Drug Loading and Multimodal Imaging for Artery Embolization

Abstract

The drug-eluting microspheres that have been widely used in clinical treatments such as chemoembolization commonly suffer from inadequate drug loading and tracking difficulties. With inherent high density and excellent biocompatibility, liquid metal (LM) has been explored at the frontiers of medical imaging and clinical therapy. Herein, multifunctional microspheres (SA/LM/DOX) are reported with high drug loading and multimodal imaging by adsorbing silanized LM particles on sulfonated agarose microspheres (SA), which are capable of heating and accelerating drug release under an 808 nm near-infrared (NIR) laser. The negative SA microspheres can adsorb more positive drugs such as doxorubicin (DOX) up to 104 mg DOX per mL microspheres. It deserves to be mentioned that SA/LM/DOX microspheres have the function of multimodal imaging under computed tomography (CT), magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and B-scan ultrasonography (US), which significantly facilitate location tracking during the embolization process. In rabbit ear central artery embolization, these microspheres are smoothly injected into the intended location of the vessel and successfully blocked blood flow, and eventually led to necrosis of rabbit ear. Overall, these microspheres with high drug loading capacity and multimodal contrast properties are promising candidates to be developed as new products for future clinical medicine.

Magnetic and injectable Fe-doped liquid metals for controlled movement and photothermal/electromagnetic therapy

“…Also, the stability of 5%Fe/LM was characterized and analyzed by measuring the ion concentration. 19 As shown in Fig. 3A, the release of iron ions in 5%Fe/LM was relatively high compared to gallium and indium ions in water, because iron particles are prone to oxidation in humid environments.…”

“…Zhu et al . 19 proposed multifunctional embolic microspheres that could track multiple modal X-ray imaging under CT, locally release drugs for more than one month, and utilize photothermal effects to accelerate drug release for adjuvant tumor embolization therapy. 18 Sun et al .…”

Liquid Metal–Polymer Conductor-Based Conformal Cyborg Devices

“…The results reveal that the liquid metal electrodes have similar mechanical properties with biological tissue, good tensile properties, and maintain electrical stability under tensile state. More recently, they report a drug-loaded microsphere (SA/LM/Dox), which can be used to embolize rabbit ear blood vessels by injection . Silanized LM particles and Dox were adsorbed onto sulfonated agarose microspheres (SA) to prepare the SA/LM/Dox particles.…”

Drug‐Eluting Porous Embolic Microspheres for Trans‐Arterial Delivery of Dual Synergistic Anticancer Therapy for the Treatment of Liver Cancer

“…[ 13 ] In another study, a novel multifunctional embolic MS characterized with high drug loading capacity, local heating activity, and imaging were fabricated to ease location tracking during the embolization process. [ 14 ]…”

“…[13] In another study, a novel multifunctional embolic MS characterized with high drug loading capacity, local heating activity, and imaging were fabricated to ease location tracking during the embolization process. [14] Another characteristic that must be considered during particle design and synthesis is the physical structure of the device itself. Among others, particle size, morphology, and stiffness are known to affect cell interaction, drug release, and overall physicochemical characteristics.…”