AVS 63rd International Symposium & Exhibition
    Nanometer-scale Science and Technology Tuesday Sessions
       Session NS-TuP

Paper NS-TuP1
tPA Loaded Fe3O4 Nanorods to Enhance and Target Stroke Treatment

Tuesday, November 8, 2016, 6:30 pm, Room Hall D

Session: Nanometer-scale Science & Technology Poster Session
Presenter: Weijie Huang, University of Georgia
Authors: W.J. Huang, University of Georgia
J.N. Hu, University of North Texas
S.W. Huang, University of North Texas
K.L. Jin, University of North Texas
Y.P. Zhao, University of Georgia
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Stroke remains the 4th leading cause of death in United States and the No. 1 cause of adult disability among the world. Current stroke treatment with tissue plasminogen activator (tPA) therapy faces a lot of challenges due to its side effect. For example, the administration time window of tPA to lyse clots is within the first 3 hours after the initial onset of stroke since the risk of tPA-related hemorrhage is significantly increased after that. Besides this, the traditional tPA therapy also fails to lyse the clot and recanalize the middle cerebral artery in about half cases.

We propose an active drug loaded Fe3O4 nanorod strategy to improve the stroke treatment therapy. Fe3O4 nanorods were fabricated by oblique angle deposition technique and loaded with tPA using glutaraldehyde as the cross-linker. In-vitro study showed that the tPA loaded nanorods could achieve a mass loading ratio (drug mass over rod mass) of 6% and a release time of 30 min. Once the nanorods were immersed in liquid and stimulated by an external rotating magnetic field, about 11% of loaded tPA was released and the thrombolysis efficiency was increased by about 40%. Such an enhancement is due to the increased tPA local concentration and the enhanced mass transport in the fluid, which could help more tPA be delivered into the clot. Such a strategy has been demonstrated using in vitro blood clot experiments. We believe that this strategy could improve thrombolysis and recanalization rates, reduce the risk of tPA-mediated hemorrhage, and maybe applied for other disease treatment.