Magnetic nanoparticles: From bench to bedside of a cardiovascular disease patient

Cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are responsible for 17.9 million deaths per year and the global burden of atherothrombotic diseases continues to grow. To achieve a more effective primary prevention of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies are urgently needed. As the recent nanotechnology advances already enabled the development of nanosystems that found their way into the clinical trials and the therapeutic routine, nanomedicine is expected to help diagnose and treat the CVD patients in a more effective and personalized way. Iron oxide-based magnetic nanoparticles, a class of nanosized agents with superparamagnetic properties, are considered a promising tool in management of patients with CVD. Due to their inherent properties, their possible applications range from plaque imaging and thrombus detection using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to the magnetically-controlled targeted drug-delivery, as well as magnetic cell seeding-based stent endothelialisation and blood vessel regeneration. In this talk, the results of our preclinical studies focusing on the application of SPIONs for atherosclerotic plaque therapy using SPION-supported magnetic drug targeting, as well as atherosclerosis imaging using SPION-enhanced MRI will be highlighted. Furthermore, the translational considerations and safety hurdles related to the implementation of magnetic nanoparticles in the clinical studies will be addressed.