Sébastien Vasseur

Magnetic nanoparticle design for medical diagnosis and therapy

Magnetic nanoparticles have attracted attention because of their current and potential usefulness as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or colloidal mediators for cancer magnetic hyperthermia. This review examines these in vivo applications through an understanding of the involved problems and the current and future possibilities for resolving them. A special emphasis is made on magnetic nanoparticle requirements from a physical viewpoint (e.g. relaxivity for MRI and specific absorption rate for hyperthermia), the factors affecting their biodistribution (e.g. size, surface hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance, etc.) and the solutions envisaged for enhancing their half-life in the blood compartment and targeting tumour cells.

Magnetic nanoparticles and their applications in medicine

Magnetic nanoparticles have attracted attention in modern medicine and pharmacology owing to their potential usefulness as contrast agents for MRI, as colloidal mediators for cancer magnetic hyperthermia or as active constituents of drug-delivery platforms. This review examines these in vivo applications through an understanding of the involved problems and the current and future possibilities for resolving them. A special emphasis is placed upon magnetic nanoparticle requirements from a physical viewpoint (e.g., relaxivity for MRI, specific absorption rate for hyperthermia and magnetic guidance), the factors affecting their biodistribution after intravenous injection (e.g., size and surface hydrophobic/hydrophilic balance) and the solutions envisaged for enhancing their half-life in the blood compartment and in targeting tumor cells.

Mesoporous maghemite–organosilica microspheres: a promising route towards multifunctional platforms for smart diagnosis and therapy

We report facile fabrication of advanced hybrid silica–spinel iron oxide (maghemite) composite microspheres built with both superparamagnetic nanoparticles for MR imaging, hyperthermia, and a hybrid mesoporous matrix enabling the transport of bioactive molecules for in vivo biomedical applications. Elaboration of such multifunctional platforms is performed by spray drying a sol of tunable composition that allows one to control the size and amount of magnetic particles embedded in the matrix, without aggregation, and to adjust the size and the surface chemical properties of the porous silica cavities. The resulting nanocomposites (γ-Fe2O3 8 nm particles in silica matrices from TEOS templated by CTAB or P123, without or with functionalisation with –Ph, –SH or –NH2) were characterised by chemical analysis, XRD, TEM, BET, FTIR and magnetisation measurements. Tests of the materials both as MRI T2-contrast agents and as heating sources of hyperthermia are presented in support of potential applications in diagnosis and therapy.

Magnetic heating by cobalt ferrite nanoparticles

In the quest for suitable materials for hyperthermia we explored the preparation and properties of nanoparticles of Co ferrite. The material was produced by coprecipitation from water solution of Co and Fe chlorides and afterwards annealed at 400, 600 and 800 °C. The resulting particles were characterized by XRD, TEM, Mossbauer spectroscopy, and dc and ac magnetometry. The heating experiments in ac magnetic fields of various amplitudes were performed with diluted systems of particles suspended in agarose gel and the results were interpreted on the basis of the ac magnetic losses measured at various temperatures. The increase of magnetic losses and consequently of the heating efficiency with increasing temperature is explained by the strong dependence of the constant of magnetocrystalline anisotropy of Co ferrite on temperature.

Silica encapsulated manganese perovskite nanoparticles for magnetically induced hyperthermia without the risk of overheating

Nanoparticles of manganese perovskite of the composition La(0.75)Sr(0.25)MnO(3) uniformly coated with silica were prepared by encapsulation of the magnetic cores (mean crystallite size 24 nm) using tetraethoxysilane followed by fractionation. The resulting hybrid particles form a stable suspension in an aqueous environment at physiological pH and possess a narrow hydrodynamic size distribution. Both calorimetric heating experiments and direct measurements of hysteresis loops in the alternating field revealed high specific power losses, further enhanced by the encapsulation procedure in the case of the coated particles. The corresponding results are discussed on the basis of complex characterization of the particles and especially detailed magnetic measurements. Moreover, the Curie temperature (335 K) of the selected magnetic cores resolves the risk of local overheating during hyperthermia treatment.

Cell Targeting and Magnetically Induced Hyperthermia

With the recent development of efficient and reproducible methods for synthesis, stable aqueous dispersions of individual particles can be prepared, in which the particle sizes can be accurately adjusted from a few nanometers to a few tens of nanometers [1]. Provided that their physical and chemical surface properties can be suitably adapted, these objects are small enough to circulate within the human body without risk of causing an embolus, since the finest capillaries (those of the lungs) have a minimal internal diameter of 5 μm. They can also escape from the blood compartment by windows of diameter around 100 nm in certain epithelia with permeability defects, such as those located in tumours and centers of infection, whereby they may then accumulate in such tissues. Furthermore, the smallest particles can migrate from the cardiovascular system into the lymph system. Finally, under the right conditions, they can enter cells and their various compartments. They should quickly become indispensable in the field of biological labelling, image contrast enhancement, the delivery of active principles, and the treatment of many different pathologies, by virtue of their novel physical properties [2, 3].