Magnetic nanoparticles coated with protein-specific molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) are receiving increasing attention thanks to their binding abilities, robustness, and easy synthesis compared to their natural analogues also able to target proteins, such as antibodies or aptamers. Acting as tailor-made recognition systems, protein-specific MIPs can be used in many in vivo nanomedicine applications, such as targeted drug delivery, biosensing, and tissue engineering. Nonetheless, studies on their biocompatibility and long-term fate in biological environments are almost nonexistent, although these questions have to be addressed before considering clinical applications. To alleviate this lack of knowledge, we propose here to monitor the effect of a protein-specific MIP coating on the toxicity and biodegradation of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles, both in a minimal aqueous degradation medium and in a model of cartilage tissue formed by differentiated human mesenchymal stem cells. Degradation of iron oxide nanoparticles with or without the polymer coating was monitored for a month by following their magnetic properties using vibrating sample magnetometry and their morphology by transmission electron microscopy. We showed that the MIP coating of magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles does not affect their biocompatibility or internalization inside cells. Remarkably, the imprinted polymer coating does not hinder the magnetic particle degradation but seems to slow it down, although this effect is more visible when degradation occurs in the buffer medium than in cells. Hence, the results presented in this paper are really encouraging and open up the way to future applications of MIP-coated nanoparticles into the clinic.
Keywords: degradation; imprinted polymer; iron oxide nanoparticles; stem cells; toxicity.