Bioengineered Ionic Liquid for Catheter-Directed Tissue Ablation, Drug Delivery And Embolization.

Delivery of therapeutics to solid tumors with high bioavailability remains a challenge and is likely the main contributor to the ineffectiveness of immunotherapy and chemotherapy. Here, a catheter-directed ionic liquid embolic (ILE) was bioengineered to achieve durable vascular embolization, uniform tissue ablation, and drug delivery in non-survival and survival porcine models of embolization, outperforming the clinically used embolic agents. To simulate the clinical scenario, rabbit VX2 orthotopic liver tumors were treated showing successful trans-arterial delivery of Nivolumab and effective tumor ablation. Furthermore, similar results were also observed in human ex-vivo tumor tissue as well as significant susceptibility of highly resistant patient-derived bacteria was seen to ILE, suggesting that ILE could prevent abscess formation in embolized tissue. ILE represents a new class of liquid embolic agents that can treat tumors, improve the delivery of therapeutics, prevent infectious complications, and potentially increase chemo- and immunotherapy response in solid tumors. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.