Bioinspired greigite magnetic nanocrystals: chemical synthesis and biomedicine applications

• Published in: Scientific reports Vol. 3; no. 1; p. 2994
• Main Authors: Feng, Mei, Lu, Yang, Yang, Yuan, Zhang, Meng, Xu, Yun-Jun, Gao, Huai-Ling, Dong, Liang, Xu, Wei-Ping, Yu, Shu-Hong
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 21.10.2013; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 639/301/357/354; 639/638/298/920; 639/638/549/974; 639/925/350; Animals; Antineoplastic Agents - administration & dosage; beta-Cyclodextrins - chemistry; Cell Line; Crystals; Doxorubicin; Drug Carriers - chemistry; Drug Delivery Systems; Humanities and Social Sciences; Humans; Hydrophobicity; Hyperthermia; Intravenous administration; Iron; Iron - chemistry; Iron oxides; Magnetic properties; Magnetite Nanoparticles - chemistry; Magnetite Nanoparticles - ultrastructure; Male; Mice; multidisciplinary; Nanocrystals; Photovoltaics; Polyethylene glycol; Polyethylene Glycols - chemistry; Polymers; Science; Sulfides - chemistry; X-Ray Diffraction; β-Cyclodextrin
• ISSN: 2045-2322; 2045-2322
• DOI: 10.1038/srep02994

Large scale greigite with uniform dimensions has stimulated significant demands for applications such as hyperthermia, photovoltaics, medicine and cell separation, etc. However, the inhomogeneity and hydrophobicity for most of the as prepared greigite crystals has limited their applications in biomedicine. Herein, we report a green chemical method utilizing β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) and polyethylene glycol (PEG) to synthesize bioinspired greigite (Fe 3 S 4 ) magnetic nanocrystals (GMNCs) with similar structure and magnetic property of magnetosome in a large scale. β-CD and PEG is responsible to control the crystal phase and morphology, as well as to bound onto the surface of nanocrystals and form polymer layers. The GMNCs exhibit a transverse relaxivity of 94.8 mM −1 s −1 which is as high as iron oxide nanocrystals and an entrapment efficiency of 58.7% for magnetic guided delivery of chemotherapeutic drug doxorubicin. Moreover, enhanced chemotherapeutic treatment of mice tumor was obtained via intravenous injection of doxorubicin loaded GMNCs.