Magnetic Drug Targeting: Drug Delivery in Large Vasculature

Magnetic drug targeting (MDT) is a novel drug delivery method with potential to dramatically revolutionize clinical approaches of the treatment of many diseases. In fact, MDT has been proposed for ailments ranging from vascular disease to cancer [1, 2]. Conventional drug delivery methods utilize large doses of medication to account for the dispersion of the drug throughout the body in the hope that a sufficient concentration of medicine arrives at the diseased site. Unfortunately, many medications can have caustic effects on healthy systems leaving patients with discomfort, weakened immunity or lowered quality of life. Alternatively, MDT aims to reduce potentially harmful global dosage levels by localizing medication at the diseased site. Additionally, magnetic drug targeting not only reduces chemicals seen by healthy areas of the body, it may provide a higher concentration of drug capable of remaining at the damaged location for a longer duration than typically seen for current treatment practices. Possibly the most important advantage of MDT is the method’s ability to enhance delivery while providing no additional invasive procedures.