Adsorption and desorption of chemotherapeutic drugs from a magnetically targeted carrier (MTC)

Magnetically targeted carriers (MTCs) are composite microparticles made from metallic iron and activated carbon. Particles, loaded with doxorubicin in the pharmacy (MTC-DOX), are infused intra-arterially through the artery feeding the tumor. With the aid of an externally positioned permanent dipole magnet, they can be localized and retained within a tumor mass. MTC-DOX is currently in use in a Phase I/II clinical study as a delivery vehicle for doxorubicin in primary hepatocellular carcinoma. The adsorption and desorption of doxorubicin, mitomycin C, camptothecin, methotrexate, verapamil and 9AC onto MTCs have been analyzed. Each of these chemotherapeutic agents has a different mechanism of action, suggesting that some benefit may be derived from combined delivery to a tumor using MTCs and magnetic targeting. Each drug displays different behavior with respect to adsorption and desorption. However, this behavior can be described for each drug with a non-linear thermodynamic model. The thermodynamic model predicts a controlled release rate by adjusting a number of parameters, including initial drug loading concentrations. This is confirmed with in vitro extraction experiments using human plasma as the extraction medium.