Magnetic targeted drug delivery

Lung cancer is the most common cause of death from cancer in both men and women. Treatment by intravenous or oral administration of chemotherapy agents results in serious and often treatment-limiting side effects. Delivery of drugs directly to the lung by inhalation of an aerosol holds the promise of achieving a higher concentration in the lung with lower blood levels. To further enhance the selective lung deposition, it may be possible to target deposition by using external magnetic fields to direct the delivery of drug coupled to magnetic particles. Moreover, alternating magnetic fields can be used to induce particle heating, which in turn controls the drug release rate with the appropriate thermal sensitive material. With this goal, superparamagetic nanoparticles (SPNP) were prepared and characterized, and enhanced magnetic deposition was demonstrated in vitro and in vivo. SPNPs were also incorporated into a lipid-based/SPNP aerosol formulation, and drug release was shown to be controlled by thermal activation. Because of the inherent imaging potential of SPNPs, this use of nanotechnology offers the possibility of coupling the diagnosis of lung cancer to drug release, which perhaps will ultimately provide the "magic bullet" that Paul Ehrlich originally sought.