Construction of Anti-EpCAM Drug-Loaded Immunomagnetic Balls and Its Application in Diagnosis of Breast Cancer

Breast cancer has the highest mortality rate among all cancers of female. A major challenge the successful cancer treatment is the need for a highly effective drug carrier to provide high effective targeted delivery and diagnose double function. Magnetic Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles (MNs) were modified by hexadecyl-quaternized (carboxymethyl) chitosans (HQCMC), 1,2-dioleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DOPC), distearoyl phosphoethanolamine-polyethylene glycol (DSPE-PEG) and anti-epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) antibody. Docetaxel (DOX) was selected and encapsulated in PEG-EpCAM-Fe 3 O 4 MNs (D-PEG-Ep-MNs). DOX encapsulation and loading efficiency was determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The synthesized vehicle D-PEG-Ep-MNs was characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM), Malvern particle size analyzer and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The results showed that PEG-Ep-MNs can be selected as a kind of safe, efficient and specific tumor targeted drug delivery.