Nanocarrier Mediated Therapies for the Gliomas of the Brain

Nanocarrier mediated therapy of gliomas has shown promise. The success ofsystemic nanocarrier-based chemotherapy is critically dependent on the so-called leakyvasculature to permit drug extravasation across the blood-brain barrier. Yet, the extent ofvascular permeability in individual tumors varies widely, resulting in a correspondinglywide range of responses to the therapy. However, there exist no tools currently torationally determine whether tumor blood vessels are amenable to nanocarrier mediated therapy in an individualized, patient specific manner today. To address this need for braintumor therapy, we have developed a multifunctional 100nm-scale liposomal agentencapsulating a gadolinium-based contrast agent for contrast enhanced MagneticResonance Imaging with prolonged blood circulation. Using a 9.4 Tesla MRI system, we