Читать книгу Magnetic Nanoparticles in Human Health and Medicine - Группа авторов - Страница 34

MNPs exhibit different magnetism from their bulk counterparts, and this particularity makes them ideal candidates for several biomedical applications. Their first application approved for clinical practice was CAs in MRI, but over the time, the advancement in the field of synthesis methods, multiplied their bioapplications. Based on their capacity to accumulate in malign tumors, the most common application of MNPs as MRI CAs is for early detection and diagnosis of cancer.

But MNPs can be used for monitoring cell therapies by cell tracking. Large numbers of MNPs can be loaded into cells by electroporation, magnetofection or cell‐penetrating peptides and single cell detection can be achieved in vitro. Moreover, recent studies showed that the MNPs accumulate in lysosomes without affecting the cell functions. The combined use of MNPs and MRI provided information in different pathological processes such as atherosclerosis, pancreatic islet inflammation, or cardiac allograft rejection.

On the other hand, different nanohybrid formulations based on MNPs able to operate as dual T₁ − T₂ contrast agents have been reported. This finding demonstrates the huge potential of these nanostructures in MRI applications.

Very recently, the MNPs have been employed in cell tracking applications using MPI and MPS. By using different classes of MNPs displaying a specific magnetic response, it became possible to study in vivo the interactions between the cells and the MNPs they are loaded with, opening new perspectives in applications related to nanomedicine.

Nevertheless, the MNPs have been extensively tested in therapeutical applications based on MH, and the results are encouraging. During this chapter, we tried to present the most important classes of iron oxide MNPs that can be used for such applications. Given the current strict regulation, we believe that iron oxides MNPs will remain the first choice in the case of MNPs‐based MH. We truly believe that by carefully controlling their characteristics, multifunctional nanohybrids based on MNPs will be able to fulfill all the requirements necessary for their successful use in clinical practice.