Background: Radiation therapy is a method using radiation to treat tumors, and has become commonly used and most effective treatments for malignant tumors. However, radiotherapy still has the shortcomings of high radiation dose, especially radiation resistance of tumor cells.
Multifunctional nanoradiosensitizers can enhance the radiosensitivity of tumor cells and improving the effect of radiotherapy. Hyaluronic acid-functionalized ironbismuth composite particles are an effective contrast agent for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and can be used as radiosensitizers.
Method: Hyaluronic acid-functionalized iron-bismuth composite nanoparticles HABilOPs can be prepared by a hydrothermal polyol method. In the cytotoxicity experiment, we took human glioblastoma cell line U87MG in logarithmic growth phase and rat vascular smooth muscle cells. We set different
mass concentrations of 0, 15, 30, 45, 60, 100, and 300 mg/LHA-BMOPs was cultured for 48 h to calculate the cell proliferation rate. In the histocompatibility experiment, we injected HA-BilOPs solution into the tail vein of ICR mice to observe the pathological changes of mouse organs. In the
radiosensitization experiment, we took U87MG cells in logarithmic growth phase for group culture. X-ray irradiation of 0, 3, 6, 9 Gy was given, and the HA-BilOPs group was added with culture medium of different mass concentration of LHA-BilOPs, and the combined group was added to the culture
medium of different mass concentration of HA-BilOPs first, and then given X-ray irradiation of 0, 3, 6, 9 Gy. To analyse the features of glioblastoma, the conventional MRI manifestations of glioblastoma were examined. Results: We found that different concentrations of HA-BilOPs had
no significant effect on the proliferation of vascular smooth muscle cells and U87MG cells. It was found that no pathological changes occurred in mouse organs after tail vein injection of HA-BilOPs solution. Nanoparticles can be phagocytosed by U87MG cells and it was found that U87MG cell
proliferation rate had a significant linear negative correlation with HA-BilOPs mass concentration (0–200 mg/L) and radiation dose (0–9 Gy). At 6 Gy X Under irradiation, 200 mg/L HA-BilOPs reduced the cell proliferation rate to (41± 7)%. Using 100 mg/L HA-BilOPs and 6 Gy
X-ray irradiation for colony formation experiments, the proliferation rate of U87MG cells in the combined group was statistically lower than that of the blank control group and radiotherapy group (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Hyaluronic acid-functionalized iron-bismuth composite
nanoparticles have a significant radiosensitizing effect on glioblastoma and proved to be a good contrast agent used in MRI.
A Bismuth Metal–Organic Framework as a Contrast Agent for X-ray Computed Tomography