Preliminary pharmacological study on a "magnetic" drug complex

Standard therapy requires high amounts of drugs, with subsequent risks of harmful effects on normal tissues. A treatment method that possible can avoid these risks is based on magnetic carriers (the method is designated also as magnetic carrier technique). The method consists in the selective attachment on a micro particle (permanent or reversible bonds), with strong magnetic moment, of an entity with no intrinsic magnetic properties (cells, microorganisms, antibody, antigens or chemicals), followed by external magnetic field targeting of the complexes ("active targeting"). The aims of this study were (1) to evaluate the acute toxicity of two original ferro-fluid (ammonium oleate and sodium oleate-based ferro-fluid) and (2) to assess the diclofenac (non-steroidal antiinflammatory drug, NSAIDS)--sodium oleate-based ferro-fluid efficiency in an acute inflammation model. We founded ammonium oleate-based ferro-fluid to have a strong dose-dependent toxicity, possible trough in vivo ammonium ions release; sodium oleate based-ferro-fluid seems to have a less toxicity. Diclofenac, diclofenac-ferro-fluid complex and ferro-fluid alone, each blocks the 6 hours inflammatory peak and the first two block also the 72 hours inflammatory peak. We conclude that the diclofenac-ferro-fluid complex is probably concentrated in the area of external magnetic field application, leading to a stronger effect of the antiinflammatory drug. Taking in consider our results we cannot exclude a possible summation of the individual effects of diclofenac, ferro-fluid, and external magnetic field on the inflammatory phenomenon.