Applications of magnetic hyperthermia using magnetic nanoparticles conjugated with specific DNA particulates

In recent years, the inadequacy of conventional treatment methods for cancer considerably arises the interest in complementary and alternative approaches. Hyperthermia is the local heating of tumor site results in the destruction of cancer cells either by a programmable or premature death of malignant cells without affecting healthy cells In magnetic hyperthermia, the targeting and uniform distribution of magnetic nanoparticles to the tumor site is cruical for improving the efficiency of the treatment method. In this study, magnetite nanoparticles that are functionalized with PAA were synthesized via aqueous partial oxidation method. Furthermore, these magnetic particles were conjugated with a DNA sequence (DeNAno), which identify and bind to pancreatic cancer cell lines for possible magnetic hyperthermia applications. By applying alternating magnetic field, the specific absorption rate (SAR) of PAA functionalized ferrimagnetic nanoparticles has been studied as a function of magnetic field strength, frequency and particle concentration. The results indicated that the heating performance of ferrimagnetic nanoparticles and consequently the SAR enhanced with increasing magnetic field intensities and frequencies. Moreover, the variation of the molecular weight of polymer, that is attached onto surface of nanoparticles was shown to affect the corresponding SAR value. Furthermore, a significant decrease in the SAR of ferrimagnetic magnetite nanoparticles by increasing particle loading were observed. These bahaviours were attributed to the interparticle dipole-dipole interaction that increases at higher particle concentrations which may lower the hyperthermia efficiency of the particles and decrease the SAR. The results further shown that, DeNAno particulates which are synthesized via RCA process were successfully conjugated with magnetic nanoparticles that exhibit significant saturation magnetizaton and the entity still maintain its target specific binding characteristics and adversely affect cancer cell viability all of which consequently indicate their potential application in magnetic hyperthermia as a active targeting system. This work was supported by the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), Project Nr.216Z004.