Eccentric magnetic microcapsules for MRI-guided local administration and pH-regulated drug release

In this work, we present a novel class of uniform eccentric magnetic microcapsules based on polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided local injection and pH-regulated drug release. The microcapsules contained magnetic nanoparticles in their PDMS shells, which allowed them to be easily tracked by MRI during administration. Besides, they showed pH-dependent drug release profiles due to dissolution of the embedded magnetic nanoparticles in acidic solutions. Moreover, by tuning the mass fraction of the magnetic nanoparticles, we could further regulate the release rate of drug molecules from them. As a demonstration, we investigated the delivery of cis-platinum using the microcapsules through an in vitro cell test, which confirmed the pH-controlled release of the drug in phantom tissues. Our study suggests that this type of eccentric magnetic microcapsules could be simultaneously employed as a potential imaging contrast and a smart drug delivery system, holding great potential for guided local therapy.