Ultrasound-mediated delivery of RGD-conjugated nanobubbles loaded with fingolimod and superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles: targeting hepatocellular carcinoma and enhancing magnetic resonance imaging
Xin-Min Guo, Jialin Chen, Baohui Zeng, Jichuang Lai, Cuiyan Lin, Mei-Yan Lai
Abstract
) + LIFU treatment had the lowest survival rate compared with the other groups at 24 h and 48 h, showing that FTY720@SPION/PFP/RGD-NB had the strongest anti-tumor efficiency among the prepared NBs. The cytotoxicity study also demonstrated that the prepared NBs had low toxicity to normal fibroblast 3T3 cells. Cellular uptake studies further indicated that both LIFU treatment and RGD modification could effectively improve the tumor-targeted effects, thereby enhancing the antitumor efficacy. The qRT-PCR results indicated that LIFU-mediated FTY720@SPION/PFP/RGD-NB could significantly cause the activation of Caspase3, Caspase9 and p53 compared to the control group, inducing HepG2 apoptosis. These results together indicated that FTY720@SPION/PFP/RGD-NBs combined with LIFU may serve as a multifunctional drug delivery platform for hepatocellular carcinoma treatment and provide a new strategy for tumor visualization by MRI.