Hyperthermia using nanoparticles--Promises and pitfalls

An ever-increasing body of literature affirms the physical and biological basis for sensitisation of tumours to conventional therapies such as chemotherapy and radiation therapy by mild temperature hyperthermia. This knowledge has fuelled the efforts to attain, maintain, measure and monitor temperature via technological advances. A relatively new entrant in the field of hyperthermia is nanotechnology which capitalises on locally injected or systemically administered nanoparticles that are activated by extrinsic energy sources to generate heat. This review describes the kinds of nanoparticles available for hyperthermia generation, their activation sources, their characteristics, and the unique opportunities and challenges with nanoparticle-mediated hyperthermia.

Effects of Near-infrared Laser Irradiation of Biodegradable Microspheres Containing Hollow Gold Nanospheres and Paclitaxel Administered Intraarterially in a Rabbit Liver Tumor Model

PURPOSE

To evaluate the effects of near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation of microspheres (MS) containing hollow gold nanospheres (HAuNS) and paclitaxel (PTX) administered intraarterially in an animal model.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

For the ex vivo experiments, VX2 tumor-bearing rabbits underwent administration of MS-HAuNS or MS via the hepatic artery (HA). The animals were killed, the liver tumors were subjected to NIR irradiation, and temperature changes were estimated with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging. For the in vivo study, VX2 tumor-bearing rabbits were randomly assigned to three groups: MS-HAuNS-PTX-plus-NIR, MS-HAuNS-PTX, and saline-plus-NIR. Laser irradiation was delivered at 1 hour and at 3 days after administration of saline or MS-HAuNS-PTX via the HA. Animals were euthanized, and tumors were analyzed for necrosis and apoptosis. Plasma samples were collected from the MS-HAuNS-PTX-plus-NIR animals for PTX analysis.

RESULTS

Ex vivo experiments showed intratumoral heating in animals that received MS-HAuNS but no temperature change in animals that received MS. Animals treated with MS-HAuNS-PTX-plus-NIR showed a transient increase in plasma PTX levels after each NIR irradiation and significantly greater tumor necrosis than animals that received MS-HAuNS-PTX or saline-plus-NIR (44.9% vs 13.8% or 23.7%; P < .0001). The mean apoptotic index in the MS-HAuNS-PTX-plus-NIR group (5.01 ± 1.66) was significantly higher than the mean apoptotic index in the MS-HAuNS-PTX (2.99 ± 0.97) or saline-plus-NIR (1.96 ± 0.40) groups (P = .0013).

CONCLUSIONS

NIR laser irradiation after MS-HAuNS-PTX administration results in intratumoral heating and increases the efficacy of treatment. Further studies are required to evaluate the optimal laser settings to maximize therapeutic efficacy.

A new era for cancer treatment: gold-nanoparticle-mediated thermal therapies

Nanotechnology-based cancer treatment approaches potentially provide localized, targeted therapies that aim to enhance efficacy, reduce side effects, and improve patient quality of life. Gold-nanoparticle-mediated hyperthermia shows particular promise in animal studies, and early clinical testing is currently underway. In this article, the rapidly evolving field of gold nanoparticle thermal therapy is reviewed, highlighting recent literature and describing current challenges to clinical translation of the technology.

Nanoparticle-mediated thermal therapy: evolving strategies for prostate cancer therapy

PURPOSE

Recent advances in nanotechnology have resulted in the manufacture of a plethora of nanoparticles of different sizes, shapes, core physicochemical properties and surface modifications that are being investigated for potential medical applications, particularly for the treatment of cancer. This review focuses on the therapeutic use of customised gold nanoparticles, magnetic nanoparticles and carbon nanotubes that efficiently generate heat upon electromagnetic (light and magnetic fields) stimulation after direct injection into tumours or preferential accumulation in tumours following systemic administration. This review will also focus on the evolving strategies to improve the therapeutic index of prostate cancer treatment using nanoparticle-mediated hyperthermia.

CONCLUSIONS

Nanoparticle-mediated thermal therapy is a new and minimally invasive tool in the armamentarium for the treatment of cancers. Unique challenges posed by this form of hyperthermia include the non-target biodistribution of nanoparticles in the reticuloendothelial system when administered systemically, the inability to visualise or quantify the global concentration and spatial distribution of these particles within tumours, the lack of standardised thermal modelling and dosimetry algorithms, and the concerns regarding their biocompatibility. Nevertheless, novel particle compositions, geometries, activation strategies, targeting techniques, payload delivery strategies, and radiation dose enhancement concepts are unique attributes of this form of hyperthermia that warrant further exploration. Capitalising on these opportunities and overcoming these challenges offers the possibility of seamless and logical translation of this nanoparticle-mediated hyperthermia paradigm from the bench to the bedside.

Spatiotemporal temperature distribution and cancer cell death in response to extracellular hyperthermia induced by gold nanorods

Plasmonic nanoparticles have shown promise in hyperthermic cancer therapy, both in vitro and in vivo. Previous reports have described hyperthermic ablation using targeted and nontargeted nanoparticles internalized by cancer cells, but most reports do not describe a theoretical analysis for determining optimal parameters. The focus of the current research was first to evaluate the spatiotemporal temperature distribution and cell death induced by extracellular hyperthermia in which gold nanorods (GNRs) were maintained in the dispersion outside human prostate cancer cells. The nanorod dispersion was irradiated with near-infrared (NIR) laser, and the spatiotemporal distribution of temperature was determined experimentally. This information was employed to develop and validate theoretical models of spatiotemporal temperature profiles for gold nanorod dispersions undergoing laser irradiation and the impact of the resulting heat generation on the viability of human prostate cancer cells. A cell injury/death model was then coupled to the heat transfer model to predict spatial and temporal variations in cell death and injury. The model predictions agreed well with experimental measurements of both temperature and cell death profiles. Finally, the model was extended to examine the impact of selective binding of gold nanorods to cancer cells compared to nonmalignant cells, coupled with a small change in cell injury activation energy. The impact of these relatively minor changes results in a dramatic change in the overall cell death rate. Taken together, extracellular hyperthermia using gold nanorods is a promising strategy, and tailoring the cellular binding efficacy of nanorods can result in varying therapeutic efficacies using this approach.

Modeling of plasmonic heating from individual gold nanoshells for near-infrared laser-induced thermal therapy

Gold nanoparticles can be engineered to target cancerous cells and at the same time designed to absorb specific wavelengths of light. Consequently, with the presence of optically tunable gold nanoparticles such as gold nanoshells, light can be effectively converted to heat via photothermal effect well enough to raise the temperature of medium surrounding gold nanoshells for thermal ablation or hyperthermia treatments of cancers. In this study, the authors proposed a new computational method to estimate thermal response of gold nanoshells embedded in a tissue-like medium when illuminated by a near-infrared (NIR) laser. Specifically, the light transport theory with diffusion approximation was initially applied to model the temperature rise within a medium without gold nanoshells as a result of the dissipation of the NIR laser power throughout the medium. After then, the heat generated by individual gold nanoshells due to photothermal effect was calculated and combined with the results for the medium without gold nanoshells to estimate the global elevation of temperature within the gold nanoshell-laden medium. The current computational model was tested for its validity using two different phantom examples, one of which was similar to a previously reported phantom experiment. The test demonstrated the capability of the current model in terms of producing qualitatively reasonable results, while it also revealed a number of potential differences in the assumptions for the current model and previous experiment. After an adjustment in the model parameters to properly take into account such differences, the computational results and the experimental data matched reasonably well within the average percentage difference of 10%.