Multivalency in CXCR4 chemokine receptor targeted iron oxide nanoparticles.

The CXCR4 chemokine receptor is an important biomolecular target in cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. In a new multivalent approach, iron oxide nanoparticles were conjugated with multiple binding units of a low affinity azamacrocylic CXCR4 antagonist. The silica coated nanostructure has good suspension stability, a mode size of 72 nm and high affinity for CXCR4, showing >98% inhibition of anti-CXCR4 mAb binding in a receptor binding competition assay on Jurkat cells.