ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Pharmacol.
Sec. Translational Pharmacology
This article is part of the Research TopicAdvancements in Bioactive Nanomaterials for Disease ManagementView all 6 articles
Preclinical Evaluation of uPAR-ICG-FVIOs for Dual-Mode Imaging and Magnetic Hyperthermia Therapy in Pancreatic Cancer
Provisionally accepted
- 1Inje University, Gimhae, Republic of Korea
- 2The First People's Hospital of Changde City, Changde, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
BACKGROUND This study presents a novel targeted nanomedicine for pancreatic cancer imaging and 2 local magnetic hyperthermia therapy (MHT): urokinase plasminogen activator receptor (uPAR)-targeted, 3 indocyanine green (ICG)-conjugated ferrimagnetic vortex iron oxide (FVIOs) nanorings (u-I-FVIOs). 4 uPAR is a cancer-selective membrane protein, ICG is a clinically approved near-infrared (NIR) dye, and 5 FVIOs are well-characterized nanorings with high efficiency in heat conversion under alternating magnetic 6 field (AMF). METHODS & RESULTS We systematically evaluated the physicochemical and biological 7 properties of u-I-FVIOs and demonstrated their tumor targeting capacity and AMF-dependent cancer 8 cytotoxicity. Following intravenous (I.V.) administration, u-I-FVIOs produced robust fluorescence and 9 MRI signals in tumors, achieving a tumor-to-background ratio of 3.5–4.5 at 12–24 h post-injection, 10 compared with 2.5–3.0 for I-FVIOs and 1.5–2.5 for the ICG group. In a PANC-1 subcutaneous pancreatic 11 tumor mouse model, animals received one of four treatments: Blank, Blank + AMF, u-I-FVIOs, or u-I-12 FVIOs + AMF. The Blank and u-I-FVIOs were administered intratumorally (I.T.), AMF exposure was 13 applied for 600 sec after the I.T. injections. u-I-FVIOs + AMF resulted in near-complete tumor regression 14 (tumor suppression rate: 93%; mixed-effects model: P = 0.0001) and significantly prolonged survival 15 (Log-rank test: HR = 0.12, P = 0.009) compared to the Blank control group. In contrast, the u-I-FVIOs– 16 only group showed no antitumor effect or survival benefit. Notably, no systemic toxicity was observed in 17 either u-I-FVIOs treatment group. CONCLUSION This study presents the first theranostic applications of 18 u-I-FVIOs, highlighting their potential as a dual-mode imaging and targeted MHT agent for pancreatic 19 cancer.
Keywords: Pancreatic Cancer, Magnetic Field Therapy, Local hyperthermia, Magnetic iron, Nanoparticles, Fluorescence Imaging, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Molecular Imaging
Received: 07 Aug 2025; Accepted: 24 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Jiang, Luo, Zhang, Wu, Wu, Yang and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Fen Jiang, jiangfen@inje.ac.kr
Zhigang Chen, 361217331@qq.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.