Biofunctionalized Magnetic Microdiscs Achieve Cancer Cell Destruction
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Biofunctionalized Magnetic Microdiscs Achieve Cancer Cell Destruction Recently, magnetic nanoparticles have been considered as a novel and promising means of fighting cancer. Magnetic nanoparticles serve as drug carriers which are released into the blood stream and come under the influence of a targeting magnetic field, which direct them onto tumor-sites until the drug gets completely released. These treatments have been successful in animals and are being considered for clinical trials. However, agglomeration of nanoparticles has raised serious concerns as they might occlude blood vessels, limiting their suitability for therapy. As described in the February issue of Nature Materials (DOI: 10.1038/ NMAT2591; p. 165), D.-H. Kim of the Materials Science Division of Argonne National Laboratory, E.A. Rozhkova of the Center for Nanomaterials at Argonne, I.V. Ulasov of the Brain Tumor Center of the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine, and their colleagues have successfully interfaced lithographically defined ferromagnetic materials that have a spin vortex ground state with cancer cells. The researchers demonstrated that the magnetic
Figure 1. Optical micrograph of lithographically defined ~1 μm diameter 20:80% iron-nickel microdiscs (MDs), coated with a 5-nm-thick layer of gold.
spin vortex-induced magneto-mechanical stimulus leads to cancer cell membrane damage, as well as to cellular signal transduction and amplification, causing initiation of apoptosis, also known as programmed cell death or cell suicide. Manifestation of apoptosis is of clinical significance because the malignant cells are known to be almost “immortal” due to suppressed apoptosis and, consequently, highly resistant to conventional chemo/ radiotherapies.
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The researchers achieved a more precise control of disc geometry and their magnetic properties using lithography which is challenging with conventional wet chemistry routes. Specifically, they prepared 60 nm thick, ~1 μm diameter 20:80% iron-nickel microdiscs (MDs), coated with a 5-nm thick layer of gold by optical lithography and magnetron sputtering (see Figure 1). Specific targeting of MDs to cancer cells was achieved by functionalization with an antibody (mAb) to the IL13α2 receptor which served as a marker over-expressed by cancer, but not healthy cells. The research team found that biorecognition properties of the free mAb were preserved in the MD-anti-IL13α2R hybrid material. The researchers investigated the dynamics of MDs in an aqueous environment by applying an alternating magnetic field (ac) which caused shifts in the microdisc vortices, creating an oscillation that transmitted a mechanical force to the cancer cell. Loss of cell-membrane integrity was identified using various assays and optical microscopies, which confirmed the magnetic field induced cell de
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