Synthesis and development of hydrophilic iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Abstract

Uniformly sized superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) with inorganic diameters of 3-35 nm were synthesized. New surface ligand coatings were designed and synthesized, and the resulting hydrophilic SPIONs in biological buffers were found to be compact, stable, highly magnetic, and biocompatible. Furthermore, the hydrophilic SPIONs were stable in vitro in serums and cells as well as in vivo in mice. Functionalized SPIONs demonstrated the ability of specific labeling. Finally, the hydrophilic SPIONs have potential as a non-toxic alternative to Gadolinium based contrast agents for T₁-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and they have shown potential in multicolor MRI as well as magnetic particle imaging.