Study with Spago Pix contrast agent published in PLOS ONE

Spago Pix is a novel nano-sized contrast agent for the detection and diagnosis of human breast cancer using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Clinicians and researchers from Lund University and Skåne University Hospital in Sweden have now together with Spago Nanomedical published an article in the reputable publication PLOS ONE (The Public Library of Science One) in which Spago Pix was used to achieve visualization of breast tumors with MRI in a clinically relevant animal breast cancer model. Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), the authors could visually follow and also quantitate the selective accumulation of Spago Pix to breast tumor tissue over time after intravenous administration. When comparing the MR signal in tumor to that of muscle tissue, there was an 82 % increase in signal difference (i.e. contrast) 30 minutes after administration of Spago Pix. This signal difference had further increased to 134 % 2 hours after administration.

The authors confirmed the selective accumulation of Spago Pix by quantifying the three main constituents of the nanomaterial (manganese, polymer and PEG) in tumor- and muscle tissue using elemental analysis and immunohistochemistry. All analyzes supported the MRI findings and showed significantly higher accumulation in tumor tissue compared to muscle.

The authors conclude that Spago Pix accumulated in breast tumor tissue of a clinically relevant model following intravenous administration and that the accumulation resulted in a significant increase in MRI contrast enhancement of the tumor tissue. They suggest that the long retention time of Spago Pix in the tumor may translate to a more relaxed time regimen of clinical MRI procedures and that the nanomaterial may allow for differentiating benign lesions from malignant tumors.

The article was published together with Kristian Pietras who is Professor of Molecular Medicine at Lund University in Sweden, Hideki Miyazaki who is a post doctoral fellow in Dr. Pietras laboratory, Peter Leander who is Chief Radiology Officer at Region Skåne in Sweden and Sven Månsson who is an Associate Professor at Lund University and MRI-physicist at Skåne University Hospital, Sweden.

The article, titled “Novel nano-sized MR contrast agent mediates strong tumor contrast enhancement in an oncogene-driven breast cancer model”, was published on October 8 and can be found on the PLOS ONE website:
dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0107762.

About PLOS ONE
PLOS ONE publishes primary research from all areas of science and employs a combination of peer review and post-publication rating and commenting, to maximize the impact of every report it publishes. PLOS ONE is published by the Public Library of Science (PLOS), the open-access publisher whose goal is to make the world’s scientific and medical literature a public resource. All works published in PLOS ONE are Open Access.

For more information, contact Andreas Bunge, CEO Spago Nanomedical AB, +46 708 242525.

Spago Nanomedical AB conducts development within nanomedicine with focus on cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. Operational focus is the development of the cancer selective MR contrast agent Spago Pix and the therapeutic project Tumorad for cancer selective radionuclide therapy. Both projects are based on the nanomedical platform IonXgel.

The goal of Spago Pix is to improve cancer diagnostics using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) through earlier detection of tumors and metastases. Early detection improves possibilities for efficient treatment and patient survival. Tumorad is a further development of IonXgel aiming at delivering very low doses of radionuclides (radioactive isotopes) for local radiation treatment.

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