Characterization of physicochemical and colloidal properties of hydrogel chitosan-coated iron-oxide nanoparticles for cancer therapy

TL;DR

This paper reports the synthesis and characterization of chitosan-coated iron oxide nanoparticles designed for magnetic hyperthermia and targeted drug delivery in cancer therapy, demonstrating their suitable heating properties and physicochemical stability.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hydrogel chitosan coating on Fe3O4 nanoparticles, enhancing their potential for cancer hyperthermia and targeted chemotherapeutic delivery.

Findings

Nanoparticles with an average size of 16 nm were synthesized.

Chitosan coating was successfully applied and confirmed by physicochemical analyses.

Heating experiments showed effective temperature rise suitable for cancer therapy.

Abstract

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles have recently been investigated for their potential to kill cancer cells with promising results, owing to their ability to be targeted and heated by magnetic fields. In this study, novel hydrogel, chitosan Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles were synthesized to induce magnetic hyperthermia, and targeted delivering of chemotherapeutics in the cancer microenvironment. The characteristic properties of synthesized bare and CS-MNPs were analyzed by various analytical methods: X-ray diffraction, Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscopy and Thermo-gravimetric analysis/differential thermal analysis. Magnetic nanoparticles were successfully synthesized using the co-precipitation method. This synthesis technique resulted in nanoparticles with an average particle size of 16 nm. The pure obtained nanoparticles were then successfully encapsulated with 4-nm-thick chitosan coating. The formation of chitosan on the surface of nanoparticles was confirmed by physicochemical analyses. Heating experiments at safe magnetic field (f = 100 kHz, H =10-20 kA m-1) revealed that the maximum achieved temperature of water stable chitosan-coated nanoparticles (50 mg ml-1) is fully in agreement with cancer therapy and biomedical applications.