Predicting DNA-mediated drug delivery in interior carcinoma using electromagnetically excited nanoparticles

Tumor-site-specific delivery of anti-cancer drugs remains one of the most prevailing problems in cancer treatment. While conventional means of chemo-delivery invariably leave different degrees of side-effects on healthy tissues, in recent times, intelligent chemical designs have been exploited to reduce the cross-consequences. In particular, the strategies involving superparamaganetic nanoparticles with surface assembled oligonucleotides as therapeutic carrier have raised affirmative promises. Process is designed in such a way that the therapeutic molecules are released preferentially at target site as the complementary oligonucleotide chains dissociate over the heat generated by the nanoparticles under the excitation of low frequency electromagnetic energy. In spite of the preliminary demonstrations, analytical comprehension of the entire process especially on the purview of non-trivial interactions between stochastic phase-transition phenomena of oligonucleotide chains and hierarchical organization of in vivo transport processes remains unknown. Here, we propose an integrated computational predictive model to interpret the efficacy of drug delivery in the aforementioned process. The basic physics of heat generation by superparamagnetic nanoparticles in presence of external electromagnetic field has been coupled with transient biological heat transfer model and the statistical mechanics based oligonucleotide denaturation dynamics. Conjunctionally, we have introduced a set of hierarchically appropriate transport processes to mimic the in vivo drug delivery system. The subsequent interstitial diffusion and convection of the various species involved in the process over time was simulated assuming a porous media model of the carcinoma. As a result, the model predictions exhibit excellent congruence with available experimental results. To delineate a broader spectrum of a priori speculations, we have investigated the effects of different tunable parameters such as magnetizing field strength, nanoparticle size, diffusion coefficients, porous media parameters and different oligonucleotide sequences on temperature rise and site-specific drug release. The proposed model, thus, provides a generic framework for the betterment of nanoparticle mediated drug delivery, which is expected to impart significant impact on cancer therapy. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd.