Magnetic Lipid Based Nanovectors for the Targeted Delivery of Sorafenib towards Treatment of Hepatocellular Carcinoma

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the sixth most common malignancy and is the leading cause of mortality in patients with cirrhosis. When the tumor is in an advanced stage and a radical surgery is, in most cases, no longer feasible, medical management is the only possible treatment option. Sorafenib is currently the first and sole biological agent clinically approved for patients with advanced HCC. As well as significant activity, sorafenib is characterized by severe toxic side effects and poor solubility in aqueous environment, limiting the possible therapeutic response and its application for local treatment [1]. Nanoparticle (NP) based approaches offer a valuable alternative for cancer drug delivery, thus ensuring the accumulation of high concentrations of drug to the targeted cancer cell, with a concomitant reduced toxicity of normal tissue. Superparamagnetic iron oxide NPs (SPIONs) are very attractive for delivery of therapeutic agents as they have been reported to enhance the drug delivery to specific locations in the body through the application of an external magnetic field. Here, lipid based nanoformulations containing sorafenib and SPIONs have been prepared and thoroughly investigated by means of complementary techniques, thus finally resulting effective drug delivery magnetic nanovectors with good stability in aqueous medium and high drug encapsulation efficiency [2]. In addition, the relaxometric characterization has proven that the magnetic nanocarriers loaded with sorafenib are also very efficient contrast agents, with a great potential in magnetic resonance imaging technique. The proposed magnetic nanovectors loaded with sorafenib represent promising candidates for image guided and magnetic targeting of sorafenib to liver towards an efficacious treatment of HCC.