This study was performed to synthesize a radiopharmaceutical designed for multimodal hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) treatment involving radionuclide therapy and magnetic hyperthermia. To achieve this goal, the superparamagnetic iron oxide (magnetite) nanoparticles (SPIONs) were covered with a layer of radioactive gold (198Au) creating core-shell nanoparticles (SPION@Au). The synthesized SPION@Au nanoparticles exhibited superparamagnetic properties with a saturation magnetization of 50 emu/g, which is lower than reported for uncoated SPIONs (83 emu/g). Nevertheless, the SPION@Au core-shell nanoparticles showed a sufficiently high saturation magnetization value which allows them to reach a temperature of 43 °C at a magnetic field frequency of 386 kHz. The cytotoxic effect of nonradioactive and radioactive SPION@Au-polyethylene glycol (PEG) bioconjugates was carried out by treating HepG2 cells with various concentrations (1.25-100.00 µg/mL) of the compound and radioactivity in range of 1.25-20 MBq/mL. The moderate cytotoxic effect of nonradioactive SPION@Au-PEG bioconjugates on HepG2 was observed. The cytotoxic effect associated with the β- radiation emitted by 198Au was much greater and already reaches a cell survival fraction below 8% for 2.5 MBq/mL of radioactivity after 72 h. Thus, the killing of HepG2 cells in HCC therapy should be possible due to the combination of the heat-generating properties of the SPION-198Au-PEG conjugates and the radiotoxicity of the radiation emitted by 198Au.
Keywords: 198Au radionuclide; SPIONs; core–shell nanoparticles; magnetic hyperthermia; radionuclide therapy.