Targeted Perfluorocarbon Nanoparticles for Diagnosis and Therapy

Abstract

Format

This is a copy of the slides presented at the meeting but not formally written up for the volume.

Abstract

The field of nanomedicine is quickly evolving in response to achievements in genomics, proteomics, molecular biology, bioengineering, and the imaging sciences. New approaches to entrenched medical problems are being studied using a cadre of “nanotools”, one example of which is perfluorocarbon nanoparticles.Perfluorocarbon nanoparticles represent a platform technology with nominal sizes around 250nm, which can be modified to home to thrombi and the neovasculature in vivo after intravenous injection. They can be noninvasively imaged with ultrasound, magnetic resonance (MR, 1H and 19F), or SPECT/CT. In rabbit models, perfluorocarbon nanoparticles have been demonstrated to deliver drug payloads targeted to vascular tissues for anti-angiogenic and anti-restenotic applications and to noninvasively confirm and quantify delivery as well as to follow response to treatment. In canine studies these agents have been demonstrated to target and enhance the MR and ultrasound contrast of intravascular thrombi, and using ex vivo human carotid endarterectomy sections, these results have been extrapolated to human disease where the potential for sensitive detection of microthrombi in the fissures of ruptured plaques is clearly demonstrated. The development of emerging nanotechnology platforms, such as the perfluorocarbon nanoparticles, permits translation of immunohistology techniques from fixed tissue on a slide to live tissue in an animal. These new agents allow biochemical and physiological changes to be studied dynamically in vivo and permit the quest for site-directed therapy to be realized.