Hyeonjin Kim1, Byung-Chul Oh2
1Radiology, Seoul National University Hospital, Seoul, Korea, Republic of; 2Lee Gil Ya Cancer and Diabetes Institute, Gachon University, Incheon, Korea, Republic of
Tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) accumulate in various cancers and promote tumor angiogenesis and progression, and thus might be ideal imaging targets for non-invasive detection of tumors with high specificity. Here, we developed an iron-calcium-phytate complex (ICPC) as an MRI agent that specifically targets TAMs. Beyond the capability of current TAM imaging methods, which is limited to visualization of TAMs, an ICPC variant was also developed by combining ICPC with an anticancer drug, Doxorubicin (Dox@ICPC). Our preliminary data strongly support that the novel antitumor MR agent, Dox@ICPC, may potentially achieve both TAM-specific MR imaging and tumor-specific drug delivery simultaneously.
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