Abstract
Magnetic particles are finding increasing use in bioapplications, especially as carrier particles to transport biomaterials such as proteins, enzymes, nucleic acids and whole cells etc. Magnetic particles can be prepared with biofunctional coatings to target and label a specific biomaterial, and they enable controlled manipulation of a labeled biomaterial using an external magnetic field. In this review, we discuss the use of magnetic nanoparticles as transport agents in various bioapplications. We provide an overview of the properties of magnetic nanoparticles and their functionalization for bioapplications. We discuss the basic physics and equations governing the transport of magnetic particles at the micro- and nanoscale. We present two different transport models: a classical Newtonian model for predicting the motion of individual particles, and a drift-diffusion model for predicting the behavior of a concentration of nanoparticles that takes into account Brownian motion. We review specific magnetic biotransport applications including bioseparation, drug delivery and magnetofection. We demonstrate the transport models via application to these processes.
Highlights
Magnetic micro- and nanoparticles with biofunctional coatings are finding increasing use in fields such as microbiology, biomedicine and biotechnology where they are used to label, transport and separate biomaterials, and to deliver therapeutic drugs to a target tissue [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
It is important to note that submicron or micron-sized magnetic particles are widely used for bioapplications (Figure 1b)
We have provided an overview of biofunctional magnetic nanoparticles and their use as transport agents in bioapplications
Summary
Magnetic micro- and nanoparticles with biofunctional coatings are finding increasing use in fields such as microbiology, biomedicine and biotechnology where they are used to label, transport and separate biomaterials, and to deliver therapeutic drugs to a target tissue [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]. Magnetic nanoparticles exhibit superparamagnetic behavior, i.e., they are magnetized by an applied magnetic field, but revert back to an unmagnetized state once the field is removed They experience a magnetic force when subjected to a local field gradient, and they can be used to separate or immobilize magnetically labeled biomaterials from a carrier fluid using an external magnetic field. Magnetic particles have additional advantages and uses that are not directly related to biotransport They can be designed to absorb energy at a resonant frequency from a time-varying magnetic field, which enables their use for therapeutic hyperthermia of tumors. We begin with a brief summary of the preparation and properties of magnetic nanoparticles This is followed by a detailed discussion of the physics and equations governing magnetic particle transport in a viscous medium. We conclude the review with an outlook for future prospects in this field
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