Book of abstract 2008

Development of novel magnetic nanoparticles based drug delivery
systems for cancer treatment
Georgy Mikhaylov1, U. Mikač2, Ana Sepe2, Igor Serša2, Vito Turk1, Boris Turk1, Olga
Vasiljeva1
1Dept. of Biochemistry and Molecular and Structural Biology, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia;
2Dept. of Condensed Matter Physics, Jožef Stefan Institute, Ljubljana, Slovenia
The development of new effective drug delivery systems for the treatment of cancer is
one of the top priority trends in the biomedical technology of the last decade. Among
the different methods of drug delivery, magnetic drug targeting could be a promising
approach by possibility of specific delivery of chemotherapeutic agents using magnetic
nanoparticles and an external magnetic field which is focused on the tumor. Recently,
magnetic nanoparticles have attracted additional attention because of their potential as
contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging and heat mediators for cancer therapy.
Currently there are two approaches for the use of magnetic nanoparticles in targeted drug
delivery: (i) chemotherapeutic agent is coupled directly to the nanoparticles or, (ii) both
the drug and the magnetic nanoparticles are encapsulated into the lipid vesicle, forming
magnetoliposomes. The considerable potential advantages of liposome encapsulation are
the prevention of local dilution of the drugs or contrast agents and limitation of their
interactions with biological media into which they are administered.
Recently the major progress has been made in our current understanding of the role of
lysosomal cysteine proteases (i.e. cathepsins) in several pathological states, such as cancer.
There is increasing evidence that cysteine cathepsins contribute to the proteolytic events
during tumour progression and metastasis. Thus, in our study we aim to examine the
efficiency of cathepsin inhibitor therapy using magnetoliposomes based delivery system
in a transgenic mouse breast cancer model.
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