Pharmaceutical Application of Magnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

Among the plethora of nanosystems used in the field of theranostics, iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) occupy a central place because of their biocompatibility and magnetic properties. In this study, we highlight the radiosensitizing effect of two IONPs formulations (namely 7 nm carboxylated IONPs and PEG₅₀₀₀-IONPs) on A549 lung carcinoma cells when exposed to 225 kV X-rays after 6 h, 24 h and 48 h incubation. The hypothesis that nanoparticles exhibit their radiosensitizing effect by weakening cells through the inhibition of detoxification enzymes was evidenced by thioredoxin reductase activity monitoring. In particular, a good correlation between the amplification effect at 2 Gy and the residual activity of thioredoxin reductase was observed, which is consistent with previous observations made for gold nanoparticles (NPs). This emphasizes that NP-induced radiosensitization does not result solely from physical phenomena but also results from biological events. Full article

Until now, strategies used to treat cancer are imperfect, and this generates the need to search for better and safer solutions. The biggest issue is the lack of selective interaction with neoplastic cells, which is associated with occurrence of side effects and significantly reduces the effectiveness of therapies. The use of nanoparticles in cancer can counteract these problems. One of the most promising nanoparticles is magnetite. Implementation of this nanoparticle can improve various treatment methods such as hyperthermia, targeted drug delivery, cancer genotherapy, and protein therapy. In the first case, its feature makes magnetite useful in magnetic hyperthermia. Interaction of magnetite with the altered magnetic field generates heat. This process results in raised temperature only in a desired part of a patient body. In other therapies, magnetite-based nanoparticles could serve as a carrier for various types of therapeutic load. The magnetic field would direct the drug-related magnetite nanoparticles to the pathological site. Therefore, this material can be used in protein and gene therapy or drug delivery. Since the magnetite nanoparticle can be used in various types of cancer treatment, they are extensively studied. Herein, we summarize the latest finding on the applicability of the magnetite nanoparticles, also addressing the most critical problems faced by smart nanomedicine in oncological therapies. Full article

In this study, single-domain ${\mathrm{Ni}}_{\mathrm{x}}{\mathrm{Co}}_{1-\mathrm{x}}{\mathrm{Fe}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_4$ ferrite nanoparticles with $0\le \mathrm{x}\le 1$ were hydrothermally prepared and characterized using X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and vibrating sample magnetometry. According to the Rietveld refinement results, all of the prepared nanoparticles were single phase with spinel-type structures. Increasing the Ni content increased the average crystallite size and X-ray density while decreasing the lattice constant. According to the TEM observations, the nanoparticles were spherical in shape. The formation of a single-phase spinel structure with two lattices centered at tetrahedral and octahedral sites was confirmed by the observation of two absorption bands in all FT-IR spectra. Magnetization data showed that the prepared nanoparticles of all compositions were ferrimagnetic across the entire temperature range of 300 K to 10 K. Magnetic properties such as saturation magnetization, remanent magnetization, coercivity, magnetic anisotropy, and magnetic moments per unit cell were found to decrease with increasing Ni content. The big difference in ${\mathrm{H}}_{\mathrm{c}}$ of the x = 0, 0.25, 0.5, 0.75 ferrites between 300 K and 10 K suggested that these ferrite nanoparticles are truly single-domain nanoparticles. The small value of ${\mathrm{H}}_{\mathrm{c}}$ of the ${\mathrm{NiFe}}_2{\mathrm{O}}_4(\mathrm{x}=1)$ ferrite and its very weak temperature dependence suggested that this sample is in a multi-domain regime. The ZFC–FC curves revealed the existence of spin-glass-like behavior in these ferrite nanoparticles over the entire temperature range. Full article

Background: Using a variety of chemical compounds and biomolecules, researchers have been working on new antidiabetic drugs for many years. Anti-diabetic research is increasingly using nanomaterials because of their unique qualities, such as their tiny size, biocompatibility, and ability to penetrate cell membranes for drug delivery. Using extract of T. couneifolia coated with silver nanoparticles as a model for diabetes mellitus research was one of the goals of this work. Methods: Uv-Vis spectroscopy was used to measure the TAgNPs surface plasmon resonance. FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the attached functional groups, XRD analysis confirmed the size and crystallinity, scanning electron microscopy revealed that the majority of the particles were spherical, and EDX performed the elemental analysis. For 21 days, alloxan-induced diabetic Wistar rats (N = 25, n = 5/group) were administered 10 mg/kg body weight of photosynthesized AgNPs as a standard animal model, while those in the untreated normal control group C, received distilled water as a control, diabetics who were treated with 0.5 mg/kg of body weight of glibenclamide, 10 mg/kg of methanolic T. couneifolia extract, and diabetics who were given 10 mg/kg of body weight of synthetic AgNPs derived from T. couneifolia in the DAgNPs group. At the conclusion of the treatment, lipid, liver and kidney profiles were re-examined to determine whether or not the treatment had been effective (day 21). Oral glucose doses of 2 g/kg of body weight were administered to each group, and blood glucose levels were measured at various intervals (day 21). Fasting glucose levels were measured using a glucometer. Each animal’s urine was tested for leukocytes, nitrites, and bilirubin using lab-made prepared assay kits. One-way ANOVA and Dunnett’s test were used for statistical analysis. Results: The surface plasmon resonance effect was examined with UV-vis, it showed a sharp peak at 412 nm. X-ray diffraction measurements indicated that the produced nanoparticles were between 15 to 31.44 nm in size. Alloxan-induced diabetic rats were fed AgNPs derived from phytosynthesized AgNPs, compared to diabetic control rats, diabetic rats treated with AgNPs showed a considerable improvement in their dyslipidemia status. Over the course of the days, it also lowered blood glucose levels. A reduction in blood glucose levels, a rise in body weight, and significant improvements in the lipid, liver, and renal profiles were also seen. Conclusions: The present findings revealed that plant mediated silver nanoparticles significantly improved the alloxan induced diabetic changes in various treated rats and might be used for the treatment of diabetes. Full article

The study of biomagnetic fluid flow and heat transfer containing magnetic particles through an unsteady stretching/shrinking cylinder was numerically investigated in this manuscript. Biomagnetic fluid namely blood taken as base fluid and CoFe₂O₄ as magnetic particles. Where blood acts as an electrically conducting fluid along with magnetization/polarization. The main concentration is to study a time-dependent biomagnetic fluid flow with magnetic particles that passed through a two dimensional stretching/shrinking cylinder under the influence of thermal radiation, heat source and partial slip condition which has not been studied yet as far as best knowledge of authors. This model is consistent with the principles of magnetohydrodynamic and ferrohydrodynamic. The flow equations, such as momentum, energy which is described physically by a system of coupled, nonlinear partial differential equation with appropriate boundary conditions and converted into a nonlinear system of ordinary differential equations by using suitable similarity transformations. The resultant ODEs numerically solved by applying by applying an efficient numerical technique based on a common finite differencing method along with central differencing, tridiagonal matrix manipulation and an iterative procedure. The values assigned to the parameters are compatible with human body conditions. The numerous results concerning velocity, temperature and pressure field, as well as the skin friction and the rate of heat transfer, are presented for the parameters exhibiting physical significance, such as ferromagnetic interaction parameter, magnetic field parameter, volume fraction, unsteady parameter, curvature parameter, etc. The main numerical findings are that the fluid velocity is decreased as the ferromagnetic number is enhanced gradually in both stretching or shrinking cases whereas, the opposite behavior is found for the skin friction coefficient. The rate of heat transfer with ferromagnetic interaction parameter was also monitored and found that opposite behavior occurs for stretching and shrinking cases. Comparisons were made to check the accuracy of the present numerical results with published literature and found to be in excellent agreement. Hopefully, this proposed model will control the blood flow rate, as well as the rate of heat transfer, such as magnetic hyperthermia. Full article