Implant-assisted intrathecal magnetic drug targeting to aid in therapeutic nanoparticle localization for potential treatment of central nervous system disorders

There is an ongoing struggle to develop efficient drug delivery and targeting methods within the central nervous system. One technique known as intrathecal drug delivery, involves direct drug infusion into the spinal canal and has become standard practice for treating many central nervous system diseases due to reduced systemic toxicity from the drug bypassing the blood-brain barrier. Although intrathecal drug delivery boasts the advantage of reduced systemic toxicity compared to oral and intravenous drug delivery techniques, current intrathecal delivery protocols lack a means of sufficient drug targeting at specific locations of interest within the central nervous system. We previously proposed the method of intrathecal magnetic drug targeting in order to overcome the limited targeting capabilities of standard intrathecal drug delivery protocols, while simultaneously reducing the systemic toxicity as well as the amount of drug required to produce a therapeutic effect. Building off of our previous work, this paper presents the concept of implant-assisted intrathecal magnetic drug targeting. Ferritic stainless steel implants were incorporated within the subarachnoid space of our in vitro human spine model, and the targeting magnet was placed at a physiological distance away from the model and implant to mimic the distance between the epidermis and spinal canal. Computer simulations were performed to optimize implant design for generating high gradient magnetic fields and to study how these fields may aid in therapeutic nanoparticle localization. Experiments aiming to determine the effects of different magnetically-susceptible implants placed within an external magnetic field on the targeting efficiency of gold-coated magnetite nanoparticles were then performed on our in vitro human spine model. Our results indicate that implant-assisted intrathecal magnetic drug targeting is an excellent supplementary technique to further enhance the targeting capabilities of our previously established method of intrathecal magnetic drug targeting.