Multimodal Imaging Nanoassembled Agarose Microspheres for Drug Delivery in Transarterial Chemoembolization

Embolization microspheres are widely used in transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) surgery, which improves treatment efficacy and patient survival by embolizing tumor blood vessels and locally releasing chemotherapy drugs. At present, embolized microspheres face challenges such as invisibility, valuableness, and drug loading limitations, which may affect treatment efficacy and postoperative examination. In this study, we designed multifunctional and low-cost nanoassembled agarose microspheres (NAAMs) and evaluated their drug loading and release capabilities, multimodal imaging capabilities, and biocompatibility. NAAMs are assembled from gold magnetic nanoparticles and inexpensive agarose microspheres, which are tightly bonded by chemical bonds and modified by a sulfonic acid group on the surface. NAAMs have excellent ability of rapid drug loading and slow drug release. 1 mL of NAAMs can load with 84 mg of doxorubicin (DOX) or 89 mg of irinotecan, and the drug loading process can be completed almost within 30 min, while drug release can last for more than 120 h. Meanwhile, NAAMs have outstanding imaging capabilities and can achieve sensitive X-ray imaging/magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)/Raman multimodal imaging, meeting clinical examination requirements. Cell experiments and hemolysis coagulation tests have confirmed that NAAMs have good biocompatibility. Therefore, NAAMs with multimodal imaging and high drug loading capacity have great application prospects in the TACE treatment of liver cancer and colorectal cancer liver metastases.