Silica Coating of Ferromagnetic Iron Oxide Magnetic Nanoparticles Significantly Enhances Their Hyperthermia Performances for Efficiently Inducing Cancer Cells Death In Vitro
Cristian Iacoviță,
Ionel Fizeșan,
Stefan Nitica,
Adrian Florea,
Lucian Barbu-Tudoran,
Roxana Dudric,
Anca Pop,
Nicoleta Vedeanu,
Ovidiu Crisan,
Romulus Tetean,
Felicia Loghin,
Constantin Mihai Lucaciu
Affiliations
Cristian Iacoviță
Department of Pharmaceutical Physics-Biophysics, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6 Pasteur St., 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Ionel Fizeșan
Department of Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6A Pasteur St., 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Stefan Nitica
Department of Pharmaceutical Physics-Biophysics, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6 Pasteur St., 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Adrian Florea
Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6 Pasteur St., 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Lucian Barbu-Tudoran
Electron Microscopy Center “Prof. C. Craciun”, Faculty of Biology & Geology, “Babes-Bolyai” University, 5-7 Clinicilor St., 400006 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Roxana Dudric
Faculty of Physics, “Babes Bolyai” University, Kogalniceanu 1, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Anca Pop
Department of Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6A Pasteur St., 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Nicoleta Vedeanu
Department of Pharmaceutical Physics-Biophysics, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6 Pasteur St., 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Ovidiu Crisan
Department of Organic Chemistry, “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 41 Victor Babes St., 400012 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Romulus Tetean
Faculty of Physics, “Babes Bolyai” University, Kogalniceanu 1, 400084 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Felicia Loghin
Department of Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Iuliu Hațieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6A Pasteur St., 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Constantin Mihai Lucaciu
Department of Pharmaceutical Physics-Biophysics, Faculty of Pharmacy, “Iuliu Hatieganu” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 6 Pasteur St., 400349 Cluj-Napoca, Romania
Increasing the biocompatibility, cellular uptake, and magnetic heating performance of ferromagnetic iron-oxide magnetic nanoparticles (F-MNPs) is clearly required to efficiently induce apoptosis of cancer cells by magnetic hyperthermia (MH). Thus, F-MNPs were coated with silica layers of different thicknesses via a reverse microemulsion method, and their morphological, structural, and magnetic properties were evaluated by multiple techniques. The presence of a SiO2 layer significantly increased the colloidal stability of F-MNPs, which also enhanced their heating performance in water with almost 1000 W/gFe as compared to bare F-MNPs. The silica-coated F-MNPs exhibited biocompatibility of up to 250 μg/cm2 as assessed by Alamar Blues and Neutral Red assays on two cancer cell lines and one normal cell line. The cancer cells were found to internalize a higher quantity of silica-coated F-MNPs, in large endosomes, dispersed in the cytoplasm or inside lysosomes, and hence were more sensitive to in vitro MH treatment compared to the normal ones. Cellular death of more than 50% of the malignant cells was reached starting at a dose of 31.25 μg/cm2 and an amplitude of alternating magnetic field of 30 kA/m at 355 kHz.