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Facile Synthesis of Folic Acid-Modified Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Targeted MR Imaging in Pulmonary Tumor Xenografts

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Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study was to develop folic acid (FA)-modified iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles (NPs) for targeted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of H460 lung carcinoma cells.

Procedures

Water-dispersible Fe3O4 NPs synthesized via a mild reduction method were conjugated with FA to generate FA-targeted Fe3O4 NPs. The specificity of FA-targeted Fe3O4 NPs to bind FA receptor was investigated in vitro by cellular uptake and cell MRI and in vivo by MRI of H460 tumors.

Results

The formed NPs displayed good biocompatibility and ultrahigh r 2 relaxivity (440.01/mM/s). The targeting effect of the NPs to H460 cells was confirmed by in vitro cellular uptake and cell MRI. H460 tumors showed a significant reduction in T2 signal intensity at 0.85 h, which then recovered and returned to control at 2.35 h.

Conclusions

The results indicate that the prepared FA-targeted Fe3O4 NPs have potential to be used as T2 negative contrast agents in targeted MRI.

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Acknowledgments

This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant number 81371623,81501518).

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Author notes

    Authors and Affiliations

    1. Department of Radiology, Shanghai General Hospital, Shanghai Jiaotong University School of Medicine, Shanghai, 200080, China

      Zaixian Zhang, Jia Yang, Yanhong Xu, Chengzhong Zhang, Zhongling Wang & Guixiang Zhang

    2. College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology, Donghua University, Shanghai, 201620, China

      Yong Hu & Xiangyang Shi

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    1. Zaixian Zhang
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    2. Yong Hu
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    3. Jia Yang
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    4. Yanhong Xu
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    Correspondence to Xiangyang Shi or Guixiang Zhang.

    Ethics declarations

    Nude mice (4–5 weeks old) were purchased from the Shanghai Laboratory Animal Centre, and the animal studies were approved by Shanghai Jiao Tong University affiliated First People’s Hospital Committee on Use and Care of Animals and conducted in accordance with local humane animal care standard.

    Conflict of Interest

    The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

    Additional information

    Zaixian Zhang and Yong Hu contributed equally to this work.

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    Zhang, Z., Hu, Y., Yang, J. et al. Facile Synthesis of Folic Acid-Modified Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Targeted MR Imaging in Pulmonary Tumor Xenografts. Mol Imaging Biol 18, 569–578 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11307-015-0918-5

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