Biography
Biography: Mohamed Attia
Abstract
In spite of the progresses of the imagers’ efficiency, notably X-ray and optical modality, their use and potentials are still dramatically limited by the low efficiency and toxicity of contrast agents. This study presents the development of new contrast agents overcoming these limitations, based on non-toxic nano-emulsions highly loaded in contrasting materials, intended to fluorescence tomography and/or computed tomography (CT) preclinical imaging. The success of the formulation of such contrast agents relies on several interdependent challenges: (i) Designing efficient and cost-effective contrast that are easy to synthesize and that can be loaded at high concentrations in nanoparticles. (ii) Developing formulations of the contrast agents without organic solvents and specific mechanical device. (iii) Adjusting the nanoparticle surface to allow high stability of the nanoparticles (at least several months), good bioavailability and efficient targeting. (iv) a long circulation in blood, the control of the biodistribution and pharmacokinetics, and the absence of toxicity. Contrast agents were formulated as lipid nano-emulsions that consisted in a lipid core, surrounded by a non-ionic PEGylated surfactant layer. Our preliminary results regarding the CT scan on mice showing the pharmacokinetics in blood, liver and spleen of nano-emulsions composed iodinated glyceryl monocaprilate. Comparing with iodinated vitamine E which has presented in our previous study, these two nano-emulsions only differ in the chemical nature of the core, however their pharmacokinetics is strongly different as one targets the liver, and the other the spleen.