Magnetic characterization change by solvents of magnetic nanoparticles in liquid-phase magnetic immunoassay

Liquid-phase magnetic immunoassay (MIA) using magnetic nano-particles (MNPs) has been studied as a more rapid method compared to optical methods for inspecting proteins and viruses. MIA can estimate the number of conjugated antibodies without being washed differently from conventional optical immunoassay. However, in the case of the liquid phase, it is considered that the magnetic properties of MNPs are affected by physical properties such as viscosity and impurity substances such as biological substances contained in the blood. In this study, the effect of sodium chloride (NaCl) in buffer and serum solution was evaluated to reveal the effect of serum because the sodium (Na+) and chloride (Cl-) ions in the serum dominate ion balance of blood. The measurement results of AC magnetic susceptibility and a dynamic light scattering (DLS) showed that the aggregation of MNPs was largely affected by the concentration of NaCl. This effect of the NaCl could be explained by shielding of the surface charge of MNPs by ions in the solution. Although the concentrations of NaCl in the buffer and serum solution were almost same, we found that MNPs were aggregated more in their size for those in the serum solution because of other impurities, such as proteins. These results suggest evaluation of effects of the contaminants in serum and optimization of polymer coatings of MNPs could be important factors to realize measurements of magnetic immunoassay with high accuracy. (C) 2019 Author(s)

A sensitive magnetometer utilizing high-Tc SQUID for magnetic property characterization

Magnetometer is one of the indispensable instruments utilized for the magnetic property characterization of materials, where it evaluates the magnetic response originated from the materials. The non-invasive magnetic technique has promoted magnetometer to be utilized in new applications such as in biomedical applications. In this work, we report the development of a magnetometer utilizing a high critical temperature superconducting quantum interference device (high-Tc SQUID) and a flux transformer composed of an induction coil. The high-Tc SQUID is used in order to realize high sensitivity, compact, and low-running cost magnetometer for biomedical applications such as characterization of magnetic nanoparticles. A first-order planar gradiometer with a compensation coil was used as the detection coil to achieve high sensitivity and cancellation factor. We fabricate an electromagnet with primary and small secondary excitation coils to enable a wide range of the excitation magnetic field with a high resolution. To reduce the magnetic field’s drift, we apply a digital feedback program to control the electrical current of the electromagnet. The performance of the developed system is demonstrated by measuring the magnetization curve and AC responses of an iron oxide composite sample. The sensitivity showed by the developed magnetometer reveals its potential for a highly sensitive magnetic property characterization

Laser monitoring of dynamic behavior of magnetic nanoparticles in magnetic field gradient

Manipulation of magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) by an external magnetic field has been widely studied in the fields of biotechnology and medicine for collecting and/or reacting biomaterials in the solutions. Here, dynamic behaviors of MNP in solution under changing gradient magnetic field were investigated using our newly developed laser transmission system (LTS) with a variable magnetic field manipulator. The manipulator consists of a moving permanent magnet placed beside the optical cell filled with MNP solution. A laser beam was focused on the cell and the transmitted laser beam was detected by a silicon photodiode, so that the localized concentration of the MNP at the focused area could be evaluated by the intensity of transmitted laser beam. In this study, the LTS was applied to evaluate dynamic behaviors of MNP in serum solution. Dispersion and aggregation of MNP in the solution were evaluated. While time evolution of dispersion depends on the serum concentration, the behavior during aggregation by the magnetic field was independent of the serum concentration. A series of measurements for zeta-potentials, distributions of particle size, and magnetization distributions was carried out to understand this difference in the behavior. The results indicated that a Brownian motion was main force to distribute the MNP in the solution; on the other hand, the magnetic force to the MNP mainly affected the behavior during aggregation of the MNP in the solution

Suppression of Interferon-induced Oligo-2\u27, 5\u27-adenylate Synthetase Induction in Human Hepatoma Cell Line, Li-7

Induction of oligo-2\u27, 5\u27-adenylate synthetase (2-5AS) activity by interferon (IFN) was investigated in a human hepatoma cell line, Li-7 cells. Little induction of 2-5AS activity by IFN was demonstrated in Li-7 cells in comparison with other types of cell lines including Ramos, NC-37, FL, Co-3. Furthermore, failure to induce 2-5AS was much clearer in old-cultured cells. Cell growth inhibition by IFN was demonstrated in only high titers of IFN (>10? IU/ml), in which the enzyme had one hundred fold higher activity than that of untreated cells. Poor induction of 2-5AS was in part the result of some inhibitor presented in cellular extracts of Li-7 cells and the decreased level of 2-5AS mRNA transcription

Effect of diamagnetic contribution of water on harmonics distribution in a dilute solution of iron oxide nanoparticles measured using high-Tc SQUID magnetometer

The magnetization curve of iron oxide nanoparticles in low-concentration solutions was investigated by a highly sensitive high-Tc superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) magnetometer. The diamagnetic contribution of water that was used as the carrier liquid was observed in the measured magnetization curves in the high magnetic field region over 100 mT. The effect of the diamagnetic contribution of water on the generation of harmonics during the application of AC and DC magnetic fields was simulated on the basis of measured magnetization curves. Although the diamagnetic effect depends on concentration, a linear relation was observed between the detected harmonics and concentration in the simulated and measured results. The simulation results suggested that improvement could be expected in harmonics generation because of the diamagnetic effect when the iron concentration was lower than 72 μg/ml. The use of second harmonics with an appropriate bias of the DC magnetic field could be utilized for realization of a fast and highly sensitive detection of magnetic nanoparticles in a low-concentration solution

An MFL probe using shiftable magnetization angle for front and back side crack evaluation

Magnetic Flux Leakage (MFL) is one of the common methods in Non-destructive Tests employing magnetic technique. It can be used to detect flaws such as cracks in metallic materials such as steel, whereas, steel is widely known as a base material used for constructions. Therefore, early detection of these flaws is very crucial in order to prevent any accident that could cost lives. Conventionally, MFL method utilizes a strong magnetic field to saturate samples and detects the magnetic flux leakage. However, in this study, a sensitive magnetic probe has been developed to remove the need of using a strong magnetic field to saturate samples. the MFL probe is fabricated with 2 AMR sensors, a home-made amplifier circuit, a set/reset circuit and a flexible yoke. Furthermore, the flexible yoke is proposed in order to apply the magnetic field to the sample at different magnetization angles. Using the developed probe, we measure the magnetic responses at front and back side surfaces of a 2-mm galvanized steel plate at different frequencies. The sample itself is embedded with artificial slits with different depth, ranging from 1.0 mm to 1.6 mm. Moreover, the effect of different magnetization angle of 60° and 90° from the surface is also discussed. From the results, it can be said that the 60° magnetization angle from the surface is proved to provide a considerable improvement for the surface slit detection, while, having close to no effect compared to the 90° magnetization angle on the back side slit detection

A low-frequency Eddy current probe based on miniature fluxgate array for defect evaluation in steel components

Detecting defects in high-permeability steel components can be challenging when using the eddy current technique. This is due to the strong magnetization signal that is simultaneously generated along with the eddy current signal. To minimize the regions of the induced eddy current and its detection, an eddy current probe based on an array of miniature fluxgate sensors (DRV425; Texas Instrument, USA) and axial inductors was proposed and fabricated in the study. The fluxgate sensors were arranged in two layers, and the sensors were sandwiched between two layers of inductors. The output signals from the fluxgate array were sampled to obtain a differential signal of the eddy current intensity and direction. A phase-sensitive detection technique was implemented to isolate the strong magnetization signal from the detected eddy current signal and utilized to characterize artificial slits with varying depths. The developed probe successfully characterized both the vertically and horizontally oriented slits with depths from 2 to 10 mm on a 12 mm-thick mild steel plate. A better sensitivity was notable in the evaluation of the vertical slits where the vertical slits would increase the eddy current intensity in contrast to the horizontal slits around the slits. It was shown that the eddy current’s distribution map obtained from the developed probe could be used to reveal the physical dimension of the slit

Development of A Resonant Excitation Coil of AC Magnetometer for Evaluation of Magnetic Fluid

A high-homogeneity excitation coil with a resonant circuit for AC magnetometer is developed. A solenoid coil is designed to produce a high-homogeneity and strong excitation field using a resonant frequency method. The solenoid coil is fabricated with a Litz wire to suppress the increase of AC resistance due to the skin and proximity effects in the highfrequency region. The Litz wire is composed of 60 strands of copper wires with 0.1-mm diameter. The resonant frequency method is applied to cancel the reactance component by connecting the excitation coil with a capacitor in a series configuration. To enable excitation of the magnetic field at multiple frequencies, a resonant circuit consists of multiple values of resonant capacitors is constructed. The fabricated excitation coil showed a high homogeneity of the magnetic field and was able to maintain a constant resonant current up to 32.5 kHz

Properties of single- and multi-core magnetic nanoparticles assessed by magnetic susceptibility measurements

Characterization of structural and magnetic properties of MNP ensembles is crucial in tailoring their performance for biomedical applications. In this work, we evaluate the size distribution of magnetic cores in single- and multicore nanoparticles in water suspension using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and static magnetization curve, with the geometrical core size ranges from 8.3 to 40.2 nm. A reasonable core size derived from the magnetization curve is obtained in comparison to the geometrical size from TEM image. The magnetic moment distribution possibly reveals that the reduction of effective magnetic core size is due to the magnetization degradation in cores. The hydrodynamic size and average anisotropy energy ratio obtained from the AC susceptibility response of MNPs from 5 Hz to 100 kHz are also evaluated. The complex distribution of relaxation time is constructed by applying a non-negative least square method to an AC susceptibility model that incorporates the inter- and intra-potential-well contributions. It is found that a log-normal distribution might not be adequate to represent the hydrodynamic size distribution reconstructed from the AC susceptibility responses of the suspended samples. It is demonstrated that the AC susceptibility model used in this study can be used to fairly estimate the average anisotropy energy ratio for MNP ensembles dominated by thermally blocked particles. Moreover, it can be suggested that besides the geometrical core size, the degree of core aggregation also plays an important role in determining the anisotropy energy ratio and effective magnetic moment

Influence of viscosity on dynamic magnetization of thermally blocked iron oxide nanoparticles characterized by a sensitive AC magnetometer

In this work, we show that the viscosity of carrier liquid affects the dynamic magnetization of thermally blocked multi-core iron oxide nanoparticles. The core size of the nanoparticles was determined from the magnetization curve measured by a specially developed high-Tc SQUID magnetometer and calculated to be 11.7 nm. Using an AC magnetometer developed based on induction coils, the dynamic magnetization of the multi-core iron oxide nanoparticle solution was measured from 3 Hz to 10.48 kHz. Later, we reconstructed of the hydrodynamic size distribution of the particles by assuming a log-normal distribution of particle size in an AC susceptibility model by Shliomis and Stepanov, which accounts for anisotropic directions of the easy axes of magnetic nanoparticles with respect to the excitation field direction. The reconstructed hydrodynamic sizes showed an average diameter of 130 nm and agreed with the size determined by dynamic light scattering method. In the case of increasing viscosity of the carrier liquids from 0.89 to 8.11 mPa s, the dynamic magnetization peaks of the imaginary component have shifted to a lower frequency region. We showed that the harmonics ratio and phase delay upon the magnetic field excitation at 30 Hz could also be used to determine the viscosity of carrier liquid independently