(9d) Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles for Triggered Drug Release from Alginate Hydrogels

While magnetic nanomaterials have already been used in clinics for contrast enhancement in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) (Singh and Sahoo, 2014), there has been no clinical approval for a drug delivery system containing such nanoparticles, yet. Magnetic nanoparticles currently investigated for their possible application in biomedicine are predominantly different crystalline polymorphs of iron oxides. For small enough crystal sizes, iron oxides exhibit the so-called “superparamagnetic” behavior, a feature combining high magnetization with very low coercive forces. Such superparamagnetic nanoparticles show great potential in therapeutic applications due to their ability to transform the energy of an alternating magnetic field to thermal energy in what is often called magnetic fluid hyperthermia (Jordan et al, 1999). These particles dissipate thermal energy by magnetic relaxation through the Brownian and Neel mechanisms. Therefore, aqueous suspensions at relatively higher nanoparticle concentrations (g/L), the so-called “ferrofluids”, also increase their temperature in the presence of an alternating magnetic field (Sotiriou et al, 2013).

In this work, a composite multi-scale structure consisting of the biopolymer alginate, functional nanoparticles and a model drug is fabricated and analyzed. We demonstrate the highly scalable and reproducible synthesis of uniformly SiO₂-coated superparamagnetic Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles (Teleki et al, 2009), and evaluate their suitability as stimuli-responsive nanofillers in a drug-loaded biopolymer alginate matrix. The superior colloidal stability of the SiO₂-coated Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles over their uncoated counterparts and their dispersibility in aqueous suspensions facilitates their incorporation in alginate hydrogel microbeads. We perform detailed physicochemical and magnetic characterization on the hybrid alginate hydrogel beads and evaluate their potential in magnetic fluid hyperthermia and enhanced biomolecule release in the presence of an external alternating magnetic fields. We examine the hyperthermia performance of such multiscale particle structures in the presence of alternating magnetic fields and compare the release of dextran (a model biomolecule) in the presence and absence of external stimuli. The enhanced triggered release of dextran in the presence of magnetic fields further highlights the potential of such superparamagnetic SiO₂-coated Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles as a functional transducer in such systems. The possibility to externally stimulate drug release will open up new possibilities in intelligent, on-demand drug administration (Teleki et al, 2016).

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