Characterization of magnetic viral complexes for targeted delivery in oncology.

Oncolytic viruses are promising new agents in cancer therapy. Success of tumor lysis is often hampered by low intra-tumoral titers due to a strong anti-viral host immune response and insufficient tumor targeting. Previous work on the co-assembly of oncolytic virus particles (VPs) with magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) was shown to provide shielding from inactivating immune response and improve targeting by external field gradients. In addition, MNPs are detected by magnet resonance imaging (MRI) enabling non-invasive therapy monitoring. In this study two selected core-shell type iron oxide MNPs were assembled with adenovirus (Ad) or vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV). The selected MNPs were characterized by high r2 and r2(*) relaxivities and thus could be quantified non-invasively by 1.5 and 3.0 tesla MRI with a detection limit below 0.001 mM iron in tissue-mimicking phantoms. Assembly and cell internalization of MNP-VP complexes resulted in 81 - 97 % reduction of r2 and 35 - 82 % increase of r2(*) compared to free MNPs. The relaxivity changes could be attributed to the clusterization of particles and complexes shown by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In a proof-of-principle study the non-invasive detection of MNP-VPs by MRI was shown in vivo in an orthotopic rat hepatocellular carcinoma model. In conclusion, MNP assembly and compartmentalization have a major impact on relaxivities, therefore calibration measurements are required for the correct quantification in biodistribution studies. Furthermore, our study provides first evidence of the in vivo applicability of selected MNP-VPs in cancer therapy.

Silica-iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles modified for gene delivery: a search for optimum and quantitative criteria.

PURPOSE: To optimize silica-iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles with surface phosphonate groups decorated with 25-kD branched polyethylenimine (PEI) for gene delivery. METHODS: Surface composition, charge, colloidal stabilities, associations with adenovirus, magneto-tranduction efficiencies, cell internalizations, in vitro toxicities and MRI relaxivities were tested for the particles decorated with varying amounts of PEI. RESULTS: Moderate PEI-decoration of MNPs results in charge reversal and destabilization. Analysis of space and time resolved concentration changes during centrifugation clearly revealed that at >5% PEI loading flocculation gradually decreases and sufficient stabilization is achieved at >10%. The association with adenovirus occurred efficiently at levels over 5% PEI, resulting in the complexes stable in 50% FCS at a PEI-to-iron w/w ratio of ≥7%; the maximum magneto-transduction efficiency was achieved at 9-12% PEI. Primary silica iron oxide nanoparticles and those with 11.5% PEI demonstrated excellent r(2)* relaxivity values (>600 s(-1)(mM Fe)(-1)) for the free and cell-internalized particles. CONCLUSIONS: Surface decoration of the silica-iron oxide nanoparticles with a PEI-to-iron w/w ratio of 10-12% yields stable aqueous suspensions, allows for efficient viral gene delivery and labeled cell detection by MRI.