Magnetic nanoparticles can "warm up" tumor cells

Unfortunately, cancer is not a simple disease and some types, such as pancreatic, brain or liver tumors, remain difficult to treat with chemotherapy, radiotherapy or surgery, resulting in a low patient survival. Fortunately, new therapies are emerging, such as therapeutic hyperthermia, which heats tumors by projecting nanoparticles into tumor cells. In a new study published in EPJ B, Angl Apostolova of the University of Architecture, Civil Engineering and Geodesy of Sofia, Bulgaria, and his colleagues show that the rate of specific absorption of destructive heat of tumor cells depends on the diameter of nanoparticles and the composition of the magnetic material used to deliver the heat. the tumor.

Magnetic nanoparticles delivered near the tumor cells are activated using alternative magnetic fields. Treatment with hyperthermia is effective if nanoparticles are well absorbed by tumor cells but not by healthy tissue cells. Therefore, its effectiveness depends on the rate of specific absorption. Bulgarian scientists have studied several nanoparticles made of a ferrite-based material called ferrite, to which small amounts of copper, nickel, manganese or cobalt atoms are added. method called "point splitting".

The researchers studied magnetic hyperthermia based on these particles, both in mice and in cell cultures, for two distinct heating methods. The methods differ in terms of heat generation in the particles: by direct or indirect coupling between the magnetic field and the magnetic moment of the particles.

The authors show that the rate of tumor uptake strongly depends on the diameter of the nanoparticles. Surprisingly, the absorption rate increases with the diameter of the particles, provided that the doping level of the material is sufficiently high and the diameter does not exceed a defined maximum value (maximum 14 nanometers for cobalt doping). and 16 nm for copper). The largest shopping center