# Tracking Adoptive T Cell Therapy Using Magnetic Particle Imaging

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2021 · $39,005

## Abstract

Project Summary
 Immunotherapy has tremendous promise for eradicating cancers. One approach to boost immune response
to attack cancer is adoptive T cell transfer (ACT) using tumor-specific cytotoxic T cells. ACT cancer
immunotherapy has demonstrated tremendous success against melanoma, leukemia, and lymphoma, but
application to other solid tumors requires new developments. Despite decades of research, prognosis for patients
with malignant brain tumors is extremely poor. Although these patients account for only ~2% of new cases, they
are the fourth highest cause of cancer mortality in the USA. A critical step for the success of ACT immunotherapy
in solid cancers is achieving trafficking and persistence of T cells at tumor sites, while avoiding toxicities due to
T cell attack of off-target tissues and organs. As such, there is a real and present need to understand the location
of adoptively transferred T cells. This Parent F31 – Diversity Fellowship proposal seeks to establish
application of Magnetic Particle Imaging (MPI) to enable the non-invasive and quantitative monitoring of
tumor accumulation and whole-body distribution of adoptively transferred T cells used to treat brain
cancer.
 MPI is a new molecular imaging modality that enables non-invasive, unambiguous, and tomographic analysis
of the whole-body distribution of magnetic tracers, typically consisting of biocompatible superparamagnetic iron
oxide (SPIO) nanoparticles. The signal in MPI is proportional to tracer mass, does not suffer from tissue
penetration depth limitations, and there is no body background signal, making quantification of tracer distribution
straightforward. Furthermore, cell tracking sensitivity of MPI is already better than with other whole-body imaging
modalities. This proposal seeks to optimize T cell labeling using magnetic nanoparticles for the non-
invasive in vivo tracking of adoptively transferred T cells.
 Preliminary studies demonstrated that labeling T cells with the commercial MPI tracer ferucarbotran has no
deleterious effects on T cell viability, effector phenotype, or anti-cancer cytotoxic activity. Furthermore, SPIO-
labeled T cells accumulated in the brain, as detected non-invasively in vivo using MPI. However, improvements
are needed to achieve the full potential of MPI for T cell tracking. The proposed research builds on this success
through two specific aims. Research in AIM 1 will optimize conditions for fast and efficient labeling of T cells
using commercially available SPIOs that outperform ferucarbotran in MPI sensitivity. Research in AIM 2 will
demonstrate the non-invasive in vivo tracking of adoptive T cell cancer immunotherapy using MPI. By enabling
non-invasive and quantitative evaluation of adoptive T cell biodistribution and accumulation in tumors,
the proposed research has the potential to greatly accelerate the development of safer and more
effective adoptive T cell immunotherapy treatments for brain cancer.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10232525
- **Project number:** 1F31CA261017-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Angelie M Rivera-Rodriguez
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $39,005
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-05-16 → 2022-04-28

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10232525

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10232525, Tracking Adoptive T Cell Therapy Using Magnetic Particle Imaging (1F31CA261017-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-28 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10232525. Licensed CC0.

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