On September 8, a research article entitled "Cargo loading within ferritin nanocages in preparation for tumor-targeted delivery" was published on "Nature Protocols" online. In this paper, anti-cancer drugs and contrast agents (Gd3+ ions or 64Cu2+ ions) were loaded into the nano-cavities of ferritin to prepare tumor nano-diagnosis and treatment reagents with tumor-targeting characteristics. Among them, the loaded inorganic nanoparticles are directly synthesized in the cavity of ferritin; the loaded anti-cancer chemotherapeutic drugs are completed in the process of self-assembly of ferritin nanoshells; the loaded metal ion contrast agent is chelated in the ferritin cavity through the histidine tag expressed on the inner surface of ferritin to form a nano-pharmaceutical preparation with active targeting, uniform morphology, clear structure and uniform in vivo behavioral dynamics. It solves the problem that traditional nano-pharmaceutical preparations have no clear and uniform metabolic kinetics due to the differences between the particles, and it is difficult to transform into the clinic application. It has an important role in promoting the transformation of nano-pharmaceuticals into clinical.

The corresponding author of the article is Professor Liang Minmin from the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, the first author is Zhang Jianlin, a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Materials Science and Engineering, Beijing Institute of Technology, Cheng Dengfeng, a professor at the Institute of Radiation Medicine, Fudan University, and He Jiuyang, a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. This research was supported by the National Key R&D Project, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, and the Youth Innovation Promotion Association of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Ferritin nano-diagnostic and therapeutic preparations

Article information: Zhang, J.; Cheng, D.; He, J.; Hong, J.; Yuan, C.; Liang, M.* Cargo Loading within Ferritin Nanocages in Preparation for Tumor-Targeted Delivery. Nat. Protoc. 2021, DOI: 10.1038/s41596-021-00602-5.

Link to the article: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41596-021-00602-5