Journal of Nanomedicine & Nanotechnology

Poly(amidoamine) dendrimers as a tool for the design of functionalized iron oxide nanoparticles for multimodal MRI imaging and drug delivery

7^th World Nano Conference

June 20-21, 2016 Cape Town, South Africa

Adriano Boni, Giovanni Signore, Silvia Villa, Claudia Innocenti, Claudio Sangregorio, Luca Menichetti and Vincenzo Piazza

Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia, Piazza San Silvestro, Italy
University of Florence, Italy
CNR-ISTM and INSTM, Italy

Posters & Accepted Abstracts: J Nanomed Nanotechnol

Abstract:

Magnetic nanoparticles are often synthesized by decomposition of organometallic precursors, a technique that results in highly crystalline iron oxide cores with a narrow size distribution. In order to use these nanoparticles for biomedical applications, replacement of the hydrophobic coating with a hydrophilic one is necessary to obtain stable and injectable aqueous solutions. Among the available hydrophilic coatings, dendrimers, highly monodisperse hyperbranched polymers with a repetitive and perfectly defined structure, have attracted considerable interest. Recently, we presented a novel and facile method to attach lipid-modified PAMAM dendrimers to the surface of iron oxide nanoparticles. By means of this platform, we have been able to tune the relaxometric properties of iron oxide nanoparticles, such as coating thickness and core size, to obtain the best relaxometric efficiency with a high degree of control. Also, we have performed in vitro biocompatibility tests and half-life in vivo measurements to demonstrate the possibility to use this material as MRI negative contrast agent. Thanks to the versatility of the PAMAM base coating, we have been able to successfully modify the surface of the nanoparticles for specific applications. Lipophilic drugs, such as coumarin-6 and doxorubicin, could be easily loaded on the nanoparticles by entrapping them into the double lipidic shell formed by the oleic acid and the PAMAM C12 chains. These results are interesting in view of theranostic applications where the PAMAM coated nanoparticles are able to increase the diagnostic efficiency of MRI, and also to perform therapy by deliver of drugs.

Biography :

Email: Adriano.boni@iit.it