Magnetic Nanoparticles: Synthesis, Characterization, and Their Use in Biomedical Field

In recent years, the use of magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in biomedical applications has gained more and more attention. Their unusual properties make them ideal candidates for the advancement of diagnosis, therapy, and imaging applications. This review addresses the use of MNPs in the field of biomedicine encompassing their synthesis, biofunctionalization, and unique physicochemical properties that make them ideal candidates for such applications. The synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles involves a range of techniques that allow for control over particle size, shape, and surface modifications. The most commonly used synthesis techniques that play a crucial role in tailoring the magnetic properties of nanoparticles are summarized in this review. Nevertheless, the main characterization techniques that can be employed after a successful synthesis procedure are also included together with a short description of their biomedical applications. As the field of magnetic nanoparticles in biomedical applications is rapidly evolving, this review aims to serve as a valuable resource, especially for young researchers and medical professionals, offering basic but very useful insights into recent advancements and future prospects in this highly interdisciplinary research topic

One-Step Synthesis of PEGylated Gold Nanoparticles with Tunable Surface Charge

The present work reports a rapid, simple and efficient one-step synthesis and detailed characterisation of stable aqueous colloids of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) coated with unmodified poly(ethylene)glycol (PEG) molecules of different molecular weights and surface charges. By mixing and heating aqueous solutions of PEG with variable molecular chain and gold(III) chloride hydrate (HAuCl4) in the presence of NaOH, we have successfully produced uniform colloidal 5 nm PEG coated AuNPs of spherical shape with tunable surface charge and an average diameter of 30 nm within a few minutes. It has been found out that PEGylated AuNPs provide optical enhancement of the characteristic vibrational bands of PEG molecules attached to the gold surface when they are excited with both visible (532 nm) and NIR (785 nm) laser lines. The surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) signal does not depend on the length of the PEG molecular chain enveloping the AuNPs, and the stability of the colloid is not affected by the addition of concentrated salt solution (0.1 M NaCl), thus suggesting their potential use for in vitro and in vivo applications. Moreover, by gradually changing the chain length of the biopolymer, we were able to control nanoparticles’ surface charge from −28 to −2 mV, without any modification of the Raman enhancement properties and of the colloidal stability

Transport phenomena in La(2-x)Ba(x)CuO(y) epitaxial thin films

The (001) oriented thin films of La(2-x)Ba(x)CuO(4+d) on SrAlO4 substrates with barium composition x = 0 to 2 were grown by DC sputtering and characterized by X-ray diffraction and resistivity measurement. The films with oxygen composition d = 0 showed superconductivity for x between 0.055 and 0.30. For x = 0.15, the superconducting transition was maximized to 4.3 K. When the films had d > 0, Tc reached 47 K. These values are higher than those for bulk samples. The depression of T(c) around x = 0.125 is smaller than that for the bulk samples. The compressive strain expands the c-axis and suppresses formation of the low-temperature tetragonal phase. Both effects result in an increase in the bond length between Cu and the apical oxygen, which is responsible for the enhancement of T(c). The samples with lower residual resistivity show a higher T(c), so we suppose that the T(c) enhancement is caused by reduced antiferromagnetic spin fluctuation in the CuO2 planes due to the change in the Cu-O apical bond length.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Magnetic field and temperature dependence of thermally activated dissipation in epitaxial thin films of YBa2(Cu1-xZnx)3 O7-d

SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

In Vitro Intracellular Hyperthermia of Iron Oxide Magnetic Nanoparticles, Synthesized at High Temperature by a Polyol Process

We report the synthesis of magnetite nanoparticles (IOMNPs) using the polyol method performed at elevated temperature (300 °C) and high pressure. The ferromagnetic polyhedral IOMNPs exhibited high saturation magnetizations at room temperature (83 emu/g) and a maximum specific absorption rate (SAR) of 2400 W/gFe in water. The uniform dispersion of IOMNPs in solid matrix led to a monotonous increase of SAR maximum (3600 W/gFe) as the concentration decreased. Cytotoxicity studies on two cell lines (cancer and normal) using Alamar Blues and Neutral Red assays revealed insignificant toxicity of the IOMNPs on the cells up to a concentration of 1000 μg/mL. The cells internalized the IOMNPs inside lysosomes in a dose-dependent manner, with higher amounts of IOMNPs in cancer cells. Intracellular hyperthermia experiments revealed a significant increase in the macroscopic temperatures of the IOMNPs loaded cell suspensions, which depend on the amount of internalized IOMNPs and the alternating magnetic field amplitude. The cancer cells were found to be more sensitive to the intracellular hyperthermia compared to the normal ones. For both cell lines, cells heated at the same macroscopic temperature presented lower viability at higher amplitudes of the alternating magnetic field, indicating the occurrence of mechanical or nanoscale heating effects

Hybrid Lipid Nanoformulations for Hepatoma Therapy: Sorafenib Loaded Nanoliposomes—A Preliminary Study

Sorafenib is a multikinase inhibitor that has received increasing attention due to its high efficacy in hepatocellular carcinoma treatment. However, its poor pharmacokinetic properties (limited water solubility, rapid elimination, and metabolism) still represent major bottlenecks that need to be overcome in order to improve Sorafenib’s clinical application. In this paper, we propose a nanotechnology-based hybrid formulation that has the potential to overcome these challenges: sorafenib-loaded nanoliposomes. Sorafenib molecules have been incorporated into the hydrophobic lipidic bilayer during the synthesis process of nanoliposomes using an original procedure developed in our laboratory and, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first paper reporting this type of analysis. The liposomal hybrid formulations have been characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering (DLS), and nanoparticle tracking analysis (NTA) that provided useful information concerning their shape, size, zeta-potential, and concentration. The therapeutic efficacy of the nanohybrids has been evaluated on a normal cell line (LX2) and two hepatocarcinoma cell lines, SK-HEP-1 and HepG2, respectively

Additional file 1: of Polyethylene Glycol-Mediated Synthesis of Cubic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles with High Heating Power

It contains a TEM image of IOMNPs, the magnetic hysteresis at 4 K of IOMNPs, the ZFC-FC curves of IOMNPs, the SAR values of IOMNPs in PEG600 and PEG1000, DLS spectra of IOMNPs, and information related to the XRD and XPS analysis and magnetic properties of IOMNPs. The calibration of the hyperthermia setup and the experimental and theoretical protocols for SAR determination are fully described as well. (DOCX 1448 kb