Accumulation of Magnetic Nanoparticles Employing High Intensity Focused Ultrasound for Drug Targeting Applications

Abstract

Local Drug Targeting in cancer therapy offers the possibility to improve the efficiency of the medical treatment while minimizing the side effects. For that matter, the medical agent is oftentimes bound to nanoparticles, which are utilized as drug carriers. The successful treatment depends on the feasibility to navigate these nanoparticles through the bloodstream system. In Magnetic Drug Targeting systems, iron oxide nanoparticles are used as vehicles and are attracted by means of an external magnet. Unfortunately, the magnetic field of a single magnet only enables the possibility of an attracting force. However, sometimes a pushing force on the drug carriers is requested. Therefore, the present study investigates the utility of High Intensity Focused Ultrasound (HIFU)to perform a pushing force on iron oxide nanoparticles. In this contribution, we show that the acoustic radiation force can indeed be employed for particle accumulation in Magnetic Drug Targeting applications.