Advances in Magnetic Nanoparticles: Biocompatibility, Toxicity, and Biomedical Applications

Dear Colleagues,

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have great potential in various areas such as medicine, cancer therapy and diagnostics, biosensing, and material science.

With the development of nanotechnology, the emergence of novel antitumor techniques that utilize magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) such as magnetic hyperthermia and magnetomechanical stress have been the subject of much attention and study in recent years as anticancer tools. In magnetic hyperthermia, an external alternating magnetic field is used to heat the area of the cancer tissue due to the local heating of the magnetic nanoparticles, which are preferentially accumulated in cancer cells due to altered iron metabolism. This treatment leads to cellular effects such as decreased cell viability, cytoskeleton damage, the elevation of oxidative stress, cell cycle arrest, and cellular death by apoptosis. By taking advantage of differences in the thermal resistance of normal and tumor cells, magnetic hyperthermia can kill tumor cells selectively, thus lowering the side effects.

In this Special Issue, special attention will be paid to the utilization of strategies for the functionalization of MNPs in order to improve their biocompatibility and to direct their application by binding biofunctional molecules such as antibodies, ligands, or receptors; this will provide high selectivity and sensitivity for many biological applications.  

A relatively novel technique whose popularity has soared in recent years for the treatment of cancer is magnetomechanical stress. In this technique, the magnetic field exerts magnetic forces on the magnetic nanoparticles; in turn, this exerts mechanical forces on malignant and non-malignant cell membranes, causing damage and cell death primarily to cancerous tissues.

This Special Issue will focus on current approaches to the use of magnetic nanoparticles, magnetic hyperthermia, and magnetomechanical stress in the search for a multifunctional therapy in cancer, with an improved therapeutic index for treatment without the occurrence of non-additive side effects in normal tissue.

Prof. Dr. Rumiana Tzoneva
Guest Editor

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• magnetic nanoparticles
• biocompatibility
• magnetic hyperthermia
• magnetomechanical stress
• cancer cells
• cell death
• cytoskeleton damage
• cell cycle arres
• oxidative stress