Well-Defined Peapod-like Magnetic Nanoparticles and Their Controlled Modification for Effective Imaging Guided Gene Therapy

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces Vol. 8; no. 18; pp. 11298 - 11308
• Main Authors: Wang, Ranran, Hu, Yang, Zhao, Nana, Xu, Fu-Jian
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States American Chemical Society 11.05.2016
• Subjects: Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Magnetite Nanoparticles; Polymerization; Silicon Dioxide; Transfection; MRI imaging; magnetic nanoparticles; peapod-like; polycation; gene transfection
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.6b01697

Due to their unique properties, one-dimensional (1D) magnetic nanostructures are of great significance for biorelated applications. A facile and straightforward strategy to fabricate 1D magnetic structure with special shapes is highly desirable. In this work, well-defined peapod-like 1D magnetic nanoparticles (Fe3O4@SiO2, p-FS) are readily synthesized by a facile method without assistance of any templates, magnetic string or magnetic field. There are few reports on 1D gene carriers based on Fe3O4 nanoparticles. BUCT–PGEA (ethanolamine-functionalized poly­(glycidyl methacrylate) is subsequently grafted from the surface of p-FS nanoparticles by atom transfer radical polymerization to construct highly efficient gene vectors (p-FS–PGEA) for effective biomedical applications. Peapod-like p-FS nanoparticles were proven to largely improve gene transfection performance compared with ordinary spherical Fe3O4@SiO2 nanoparticles (s-FS). External magnetic field was also utilized to further enhance the transfection efficiency. Moreover, the as-prepared p-FS–PGEA gene carriers could combine the magnetic characteristics of p-FS to well achieve noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We show here novel and multifunctional magnetic nanostructures fabricated for biomedical applications that realized efficient gene delivery and real-time imaging at the same time.