Gold-decorated magnetic nanoparticles design for hyperthermia applications and as a potential platform for their surface-functionalization

L León Félix; B Sanz; V Sebastián; T E Torres; M H Sousa; J A H Coaquira; M R Ibarra; G F Goya

doi:10.1038/s41598-019-40769-2

Gold-decorated magnetic nanoparticles design for hyperthermia applications and as a potential platform for their surface-functionalization

Sci Rep. 2019 Mar 12;9(1):4185. doi: 10.1038/s41598-019-40769-2.

Authors

L León Félix^{1

2}, B Sanz³, V Sebastián^{4

5}, T E Torres^{4

6}, M H Sousa⁷, J A H Coaquira⁸, M R Ibarra^{4

9}, G F Goya^{10

11}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Magnetic Characterization, Instituto de Física, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, 70910-900, Brazil. lizbetlf@gmail.com.
² Instituto de Nanociencia de Aragón (INA), Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, 50018, Spain. lizbetlf@gmail.com.
³ nB nanoScale Biomagnetics S.L., Zaragoza, Spain.
⁴ Instituto de Nanociencia de Aragón (INA), Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, 50018, Spain.
⁵ Networking Research Centre on Bioengineering, Biomaterials and Nanomedicine, CIBER-BBN, 28029, Madrid, Spain.
⁶ Laboratorio de Microscopias Avanzadas (LMA), Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, 50018, Spain.
⁷ Green Nanotechnology Group, University of Brasília, Brasília, DF, 72220-900, Brazil.
⁸ Laboratory of Magnetic Characterization, Instituto de Física, Universidade de Brasília, Brasília, DF, 70910-900, Brazil.
⁹ Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, 50009, Spain.
¹⁰ Instituto de Nanociencia de Aragón (INA), Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, 50018, Spain. goya@unizar.es.
¹¹ Departamento de Física de la Materia Condensada, Universidad de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, 50009, Spain. goya@unizar.es.

Abstract

The integration of noble metal and magnetic nanoparticles with controlled structures that can couple various specific effects to the different nanocomposite in multifunctional nanosystems have been found interesting in the field of medicine. In this work, we show synthesis route to prepare small Au nanoparticles of sizes <d> = 3.9 ± 0.2 nm attached to Fe₃O₄ nanoparticle cores (<d> = 49.2 ± 3.5 nm) in aqueous medium for potential application as a nano-heater. Remarkably, the resulted Au decorated PEI-Fe₃O₄ (Au@PEI-Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles are able to retain bulk magnetic moment M_S = 82-84 Am²/kg_Fe3O4, with the Verwey transition observed at T_V = 98 K. In addition, the in vitro cytotoxicity analysis of the nanosystem microglial BV2 cells showed high viability (>97.5%) to concentrate up to 100 µg/mL in comparison to the control samples. In vitro heating experiments on microglial BV2 cells under an ac magnetic field (H₀ = 23.87 kA/m; f = 571 kHz) yielded specific power absorption (SPA) values of SPA = 43 ± 3 and 49 ± 1 μW/cell for PEI-Fe₃O₄ and Au@PEI-Fe₃O₄ NPs, respectively. These similar intracellular SPA values imply that functionalization of the magnetic particles with Au did not change the heating efficiency, providing at the same time a more flexible platform for multifunctional functionalization.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't