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Maria Theodosiou

Liposomal Encapsulated Iron Oxide Nanoflowers for Magnetic Hyperthermia

Iron oxide Nanoflowers (IONFs) are monocrystalline maghemite nanoparticles which have been shown to possess great heating capacity stemming from their superparamagnetic behavior that can be exploited by Magnetic Hyperthermia, for the treatment of cancer [1]. The purpose of this project is to prepare liposomal thermosensitive drug delivery vehicles for Hyperthermia treatment of glioblastoma, which will be conducted on xenografted SCID mice with U87MG cells [2]. The proposed vehicles are thermosensitive liposomes, in which IONFs are encapsulated, that can be loaded with the appropriate drug combination. The idea behind this project is to trigger the IONFs within the liposome with Magnetic Hyperthermia, causing a disruption of the lipid bilayer, thus allowing the drug to be released in the tumor. Synthesis and characterization of the liposomal encapsulated IONFs have been done during the STSM period, whereas the biological evaluation is currently under investigation.

In detail, the IONFs were synthesized according to a revised polyol method [1] and coated with tri-sodium citrate in order to increase their aqueous colloidal stability, which is required for bioapplications. The IONFs were about 28 nm and exhibited a magnetization saturation (Ms) of 77 emu/g of Iron Oxide content.  The liposomes were synthesized with a standard method of hydration of a thin lipid film by mixing the desirable lipids (DSPE-PEG2000, DPPC and DSPE) with cholesterol. The encapsulation of IONFs took place as a part of the hydration step, where a citrate buffer (pH= 5) solution was selected as the optimum medium for the preparation of stable monodispersed liposomes of around 148nm.

References 

1. Journal of Physical Chemistry C, 2012, 116, 15702-15712

2. Journal of Colloid and Interface Science, 433, 2014, 163-175