Functionalized Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Both Dual-Modal Imaging and Erythropoiesis

Chunliang Zhang; Ruitao Cha; Keying Long; Yang Liu; Yanrong Dong; Yulong Zhang; Xiaohui Wang; Xingyu Jiang

doi:10.1021/acsami.4c15206

Functionalized Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Both Dual-Modal Imaging and Erythropoiesis

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2024 Dec 10. doi: 10.1021/acsami.4c15206. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Chunliang Zhang^{1

2}, Ruitao Cha^{1

3}, Keying Long¹, Yang Liu¹, Yanrong Dong⁴, Yulong Zhang⁴, Xiaohui Wang⁴, Xingyu Jiang⁵

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Theoretical and Computational Nanoscience, CAS Center for Excellence in Nanoscience, National Center for NanoScience and Technology, No. 11 Zhongguancun Beiyitiao, Haidian District, Beijing 100190, P. R. China.
² The Ninth Medical Center of PLA General Hospital, No. 9 Anxiang Beili, Chaoyang District, Beijing 100101, P. R. China.
³ NMPA Key Laboratory for Quality Research and Evaluation of Pharmaceutical Excipients, National Institutes for Food and Drug Control, No. 2 Tiantan Xi Li, Dongcheng District, Beijing 100050, P. R. China.
⁴ Institute of Health Service and Transfusion Medicine, Beijing 100850, P. R. China.
⁵ Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Advanced Biomaterials, Shenzhen Key Laboratory of Smart Healthcare Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, No. 1088 Xueyuan Road, Nanshan District, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518055, P. R. China.

PMID: 39656520
DOI: 10.1021/acsami.4c15206

Abstract

Cancer-related anemia (CRA), a complication of cancer, is considered the primary cause of high mortality for cancer patients. Safe and effective theranostics are desirable for realizing the high diagnostic accuracy of tumors and ameliorating CRA in the clinic. However, the available theranostics do not support dual-modal imaging and the amelioration of CRA at the same time. In this study, we synthesized functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe₃O₄ NPs) modified with protoporphyrin IX (PPIX) and folic acid (FA) by a one-step modification strategy (Fe₃O₄@NH-PPIX&FA NPs) or a step-by-step strategy (Fe₃O₄@NH-PPIX-FA NPs), aiming at both magnetic resonance imaging/fluorescence imaging (MRI/FI) and erythropoiesis. Fe₃O₄@NH-PPIX-FA NPs displayed better ability of MRI/FI than Fe₃O₄@NH-PPIX&FA NPs and had an efficient tumor targeting of 45 min after tail vein injection owing to the reduction of the steric effect and extension of FA groups. Fe₃O₄@NH-PPIX-FA NPs exhibited satisfactory erythropoiesis with up to 20% elevation of red blood cell (RBC) counts and hemoglobin concentrations in mice with CRA, which provided a safe alternative to RBC transfusions, especially for patients needing recurrent RBC transfusions. With excellent performance in both dual-modal imaging and erythropoiesis, Fe₃O₄@NH-PPIX-FA NPs could be a powerful tool for the theranostics of cancer patients with anemia.

Keywords: dual-modal imaging; erythropoiesis; folic acid; iron oxide nanoparticles; protoporphyrin IX.