Q2. What is the promising and fascinating frontier in cancer theranostics?
the combination of imaging and therapeuticfunctionality into ferritin nanocages seems to be the most promising and fascinating frontier in cancer theranostics.
Q3. What are the features that make ferritin an ideal device for imaging?
The plasticity of ferritin as a mineralization chamber for heavy atoms or complexes, and the possibility of modifying ferritin nanocages by protein engineering or by chemical reaction to insert probe molecules, are features that make ferritin an ideal device for imaging [53].
Q4. What are the advantages of ferritin nanoparticles?
Their high stability, biocompatibility, ability to disassemble and reassemble in a shape memory fashion and disposition for surface modification make ferritin nanoparticles an ideal platform for drug delivery [55].
Q5. What is the role of ferritin in drug dosage?
Since it has a uniform cage, ferritin allows the precise control of the amount of encapsulated molecules, which is a critical feature in defining drug dosage.
Q6. What is the potential of ferritin nanocages?
Ferritin-based nanocages could be implemented for the delivery of radioisotopes increasing loading efficiency and improving pharmacokinetics.
Q7. What could be done to improve and refine intraoperative imaging?
Combining optical and nanotargeted strategies could improve and refine intraoperative imaging, to properly excise a tumor lesion with adequate margins, and provide targeted diagnostic tools for cancer follow up.
Q8. What is the extensively investigated system for delivery of anticancer drugs?
Doxorubicin (DOX) encapsulation in ferritin nanocages represents the most extensively investigated system for delivery of anticancer drugs [47].
Q9. What is the effect of the injection of ferritin nanoparticles on tumors?
Injection of such nanoparticles in MDA-231 tumor-bearing mice caused a drop of the T2 signal due to TfR1-dependent tumor accumulation [78].
Q10. How many nm Gd nanoparticles have been produced inside ferritins?
Five nm Gd nanoparticles have been produced inside ferritins, obtaining nanoparticles with longitudinal and transverse relaxivity from 10 to 70 times higher than commercially available Gd-chelates [81].
Q11. What is the recent study of ferritin nanocages?
Ferritin nanocages have been extensively exploited for the biomineralization of metal oxides, such as iron [57], manganese [58], cobalt [59], chromium and nickel oxides [60].
Q12. How many atoms/nanoparticle can kill surrounding tumor cells?
Hainfeld has developed ferritin cages with a payload of about 800 235 U atoms/nanoparticle, able to kill surrounding tumor cells [75].
Q13. What is the main application of ferritin nanoparticles?
While ferritin nanoparticles have been widely investigated in the context of nanotechnology, their main application concerns the field of nanomedicine.
Q14. What is the drawback of ferritin chemotherapies?
most of the currently used chemotherapies are not based on metals such as cisplatin, and the incorporation of non-metal-containing drugs within ferritin is complicated by their limited interaction with the protein cage.
Q15. How did Aime et al. achieve a r1 relaxivity?
Aime et al. exploited a pH-mediated ferritin disassembly to load about 8-10 GdHPDO3A/nanoparticle, obtaining a r1 relaxivity of 80 mM -1 s -1 [83].
Q16. What is the role of the RNA molecules in cancer?
These short noncoding RNA molecules, have been strongly related to either cancer progression or resistance, suggesting that miRNA/siRNA-based therapy could be associated with standard treatment.
Q17. What is the main advantage of ferritin nanoparticles?
Cisplatin encapsulation was first reported in 2007 by Gao and coworkers [68], who also studied the cellular uptake of these nanoparticles and several applications in tumor treatment [69].
Q18. What is the effect of ferritin nanocages on tumor growth?
In vivo results clearly demonstrated that ferritin nanocages improve DOX bioavailability, tumor accumulation and clearance, and suggested that ferritin-mediated active targeting provides a major contribution (Figure 4) [73].
Q19. What is the widely studied of the ferritin-based nanoparticles?
At present, unfunctionalized DOX-loaded ferritin represents the most extensively investigated of the ferritin-based nanoparticles, and several in vitro and in vivo studies have demonstrated it to be successful.