One-Minute Preparation of Iron Foam-Drug Implant for Ultralow-Power Magnetic Hyperthermia-Based Combination Therapy of Tumors in Vivo.

ABSTRACT

The magnetic hyperthermia-based combination therapy (MHCT) is a powerful tumor treatment approach due to its unlimited tissue penetration depth and synergistic therapeutic effect. However, strong magnetic hyperthermia and facile drug loading are incompatible with current MHCT platforms. Herein, an iron foam (IF)-drug implant is established in an ultra-facile and universal way for ultralow-power MHCT of tumors in vivo for the first time. The IF-drug implant is fabricated by simply immersing IF in a drug solution at an adjustable concentration for 1 min. Continuous metal structure of IF enables ultra-high efficient magnetic hyperthermia based on eddy current thermal effect, and its porous feature provides great space for loading various hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs via "capillary action". In addition, the IF has the merits of low cost, customizable size and shape, and good biocompatibility and biodegradability, benefiting reproducible and large-scale preparation of IF-drug implants for biological application. As a proof of concept, IF-doxorubicin (IF-DOX) is used for combined tumor treatment in vivo and achieves excellent therapeutic efficacy at a magnetic field intensity an order of magnitude lower than the threshold for biosafety application. The proposed IF-drug implant provides a handy and universal method for the fabrication of MHCT platforms for ultralow-power combination therapy.