Biodistribution Study of Niosomes in Tumor-Implanted BALB/C Mice Using Scintigraphic Imaging.

Leanne De Silva,Azahari Kasbollah,Wan Hamirul Bahrin Wan Kamal,Saravanan Muniyandy,Ju-Yen Fu,Thet Thet Htar,Lay-Hong Chuah

doi:10.3389/fphar.2021.778396

Leanne De Silva, Azahari Kasbollah + Show 5 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2021.778396

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Abstract

The purpose of this work was to study the biodistribution of niosomes in tumor-implanted BALB/c mice using gamma scintigraphy. Niosomes were first formulated and characterized, then radiolabeled with Technetium-99 m (99mTc). The biodistribution of 99mTc-labeled niosomes was evaluated in tumor-bearing mice through intravenous injection and imaged with gamma scintigraphy. The labeled complexes possessed high radiolabeling efficiency (98.08%) and were stable in vitro (>80% after 8 h). Scintigraphic imaging showed negligible accumulation in the stomach and thyroid, indicating minimal leaching of the radiolabel in vivo. Radioactivity was found mainly in the liver, spleen and kidneys. Tumor-to-muscle ratio indicated a higher specificity of the formulation for the tumor area. Overall, the formulated niosomes are stable both in vitro and in vivo, and show preferential tumor accumulation.

Highlights

There has been a rapid growth of interest in the field of nanocarriers for its application in cancer therapy in terms of imaging, diagnosis and treatment over the past 3 decades (Hafner et al, 2014; Choudhury et al, 2018; Gao et al, 2018; Hussain et al, 2021)
The enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect was widely used in the development of nanocarriers for passive targeting (Subhan et al, 2021), where it involves the preferential accumulation of nanocarriers within solid tumors due to their leaky vessels that are formed as a result of uncontrolled angiogenesis (Baban et al, 1998; Byrne et al, 2008; Hatakeyama et al, 2011)
The 99mTclabeled niosomes showed no significant reductions in radiolabeling efficiency with a loss of 3.50 and 14.40% of radioactivity in saline and serum respectively after 8 h, indicating that there was little dissociation of 99mTc and that the 99mTc-labeled niosomes are suitable to be used for further in vivo studies

Summary

Introduction

There has been a rapid growth of interest in the field of nanocarriers for its application in cancer therapy in terms of imaging, diagnosis and treatment over the past 3 decades (Hafner et al, 2014; Choudhury et al, 2018; Gao et al, 2018; Hussain et al, 2021). The enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect was widely used in the development of nanocarriers for passive targeting (Subhan et al, 2021), where it involves the preferential accumulation of nanocarriers within solid tumors due to their leaky vessels that are formed as a result of uncontrolled angiogenesis (Baban et al, 1998; Byrne et al, 2008; Hatakeyama et al, 2011) This brings about the postulation that systemically administered nanocarriers that are smaller in diameter than the fenestrations, but larger than the tight endothelial junctions, Biodistribution Study of Niosomes have the potential to gain access within the interstitium and be entrapped within the tumor microenvironment (He et al, 2020; Shi et al, 2020). This accumulation is further facilitated by the tumor’s lack of well-defined lymphatic vessels that impairs extravasation of the nanocarrier out of the tumor (Haley et al, 2008; Hak et al, 2010)

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