Magnetic nanoparticles for targeted vascular delivery

Magnetic targeting has shown promise to improve the efficacy and safety of different classes of therapeutic agents by enabling their active guidance to the site of disease and minimizing dissemination to nontarget tissues. However, its translation into clinic has proven difficult because of inherent limitations of traditional approaches inapplicable for deep tissue targeting in human subjects and a need for developing well‐characterized and fully biocompatible magnetic carrier formulations. A novel magnetic targeting scheme based on the magnetizing effect of deep‐penetrating uniform fields is presented as an example of a strategy providing a potentially clinically viable solution for preventing injury‐triggered reobstruction of stented blood vessels (in‐stent restenosis). The design of optimized magnetic carrier formulations and experimental results showing the feasibility of uniform field‐controlled targeting for site‐specific vascular delivery of small‐molecule pharmaceuticals, biotherapeutics, and cells are discussed in the context of antirestenotic therapy. The versatility of this approach applicable to different classes of therapeutic agents exerting their antirestenotic effects through distinct mechanisms prompts exploring the utility of uniform field‐mediated magnetic stent targeting for combination therapies with enhanced efficiencies and improved safety profiles. Additional improvements in terms of site specificity and protracted carrier retention at the site of injury may be expected from the development and use of magnetic carriers exhibiting affinity for arterial wall‐specific antigens. © 2011 IUBMB IUBMB Life, 2011