MRI-Trackable Cell Therapies: Portal's Mechanoporation Solution for Real-Time Visualization

Cell therapies hold tremendous promise, but once administered to patients, we essentially lose sight of them. Do CAR-T cells reach their tumor targets? How long do stem cells persist at injury sites? Without the ability to track therapeutic cells in vivo, dosing remains empirical and treatment optimization is largely guesswork.

The MRI Tracking Challenge

MRI represents the ideal modality for cell tracking—offering non-invasive, deep-tissue visualization with excellent spatial resolution and no radiation exposure. Unlike optical methods limited by tissue penetration or nuclear imaging requiring radioactive isotopes, MRI can repeatedly monitor cells over weeks to months.

The bottleneck lies in efficiently loading therapeutic cells with magnetic contrast agents. Cells must carry sufficient magnetic nanoparticles to generate detectable MRI signals while maintaining their therapeutic function—a requirement that traditional delivery methods struggle to meet.

Current approaches fall short:

• Conventional incubation relies on slow, inefficient endocytic uptake - a process that is often insufficient for labeling B and T cells
• Electroporation struggles with nanoparticles and causes significant cell death and functional impairment
• Chemical transfection agents are often incompatible with metallic particles and prove toxic to sensitive therapeutic cells

Portal's Mechanoporation Solution

Portal's mechanoporation technology directly addresses this challenge by physically delivering magnetic nanoparticles into therapeutic cells via mechanoporation with unprecedented efficiency and minimal toxicity.

The process: Cells flow through precisely engineered pores with constrictions smaller than the cell diameter. This controlled compression creates transient membrane pores through which superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) diffuse directly into the cytosol¹. The membrane rapidly self-repairs, leaving cells intact with evenly distributed magnetic cargo.

Key advantages over existing methods: 

• High efficiency: Direct cytosolic delivery bypasses endosomal sequestration
• Preserved viability: 80-90% cell survival maintained2
• Universal applicability: Works across diverse cell types, including difficult-to-transfect T cells and stem cells
• Clinical scalability: Millions of cells processed per second through parallel pores

Proven Nanoparticle Delivery Performance

Portal's team has demonstrated successful delivery of nanoparticles directly relevant to MRI applications:
Quantum dots (10-20 nm) were efficiently loaded into cells' cytosol with high viability, remaining dispersed without aggregation for long-term imaging2.
Carbon nanotubes (hundreds of nanometers) were successfully delivered even into primary immune cells and stem cells1.
Iron oxide nanoparticles (10-100 nm) fall well within this proven size range, making SPION loading highly feasible with Portal's platform.

Transforming Cell Therapy Monitoring

MRI-trackable cells enabled by Portal's technology would revolutionize how we develop and deploy cell therapies:
Clinical trials could finally provide quantitative data on cell biodistribution, survival kinetics, and target engagement—enabling evidence-based optimization of dosing and delivery.
Clinical practice would allow physicians to verify that therapeutic cells reach intended targets and monitor their persistence over time.
Treatment optimization could distinguish between cell survival failures and poor localization, guiding therapeutic adjustments in real-time.

The Path Forward

Portal's mechanoporation platform bridges the gap between sophisticated cell therapies and clinical imaging capabilities. By enabling uniform, efficient magnetic nanoparticle loading while preserving cell function, we can finally create cell products that are visible from the moment of administration.

This represents more than better monitoring—it's the foundation for precision cell therapy where treatments can be visualized, quantified, and optimized in real-time. The technical capabilities are proven1, the clinical need is urgent, and the opportunity to transform cell therapy development is within reach.

Portal is advancing mechanoporation technology for MRI-trackable cell therapies. Contact our team to learn how our platform could enable real-time visualization of your therapeutic cells.