Abstract
Currently available cancer therapies can cause damage to healthy tissue. We developed a unique method for specific mechanical lysis of cancer cells using superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticle rotation under a weak alternating magnetic field. Iron oxide core nanoparticles were coated with cetuximab, an anti-epidermal growth factor receptor antibody, for specific tumor targeting. Nude mice bearing a head and neck tumor were treated with cetuximab-coated magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) and then received a 30 min treatment with a weak external alternating magnetic field (4 Hz) applied on alternating days (total of seven treatments, over 14 days). This treatment, compared to a pure antibody, exhibited a superior cell death effect over time. Furthermore, necrosis in the tumor site was detected by magnetic resonance (MR) images. Thermal camera images of head and neck squamous cell carcinoma cultures demonstrated that cell death occurred purely by a mechanical mechanism.
Highlights
One of the major challenges for cancer therapy is focused destruction of tumor cells without damaging the surrounding environment
Additional groups (n = 3 per group) included untreated cells, cells incubated with the three sizes of coated magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) without subsequent alternating magnetic fields (AMFs), cells not incubated with MNPs but groups
To ensure that cell death was caused by AMF-induced particle motion and was not due to Figure 2 shows results for cells incubated with 50 nm MNPs
Summary
One of the major challenges for cancer therapy is focused destruction of tumor cells without damaging the surrounding environment. Available treatments, such as radiotherapy and chemotherapy, can harm healthy tissue as well, while regional hyperthermia generally cannot use high enough temperatures to completely destroy cancer cells, necessitating combination with other therapies. In a non-homogeneous AMF gradient, MNPs oscillate mechanically and generate ultrasound waves, generating intracellular ultrasounds, which in turn can account for magnetic hyperthermia without any global temperature increase [3]. The present study offers a novel system using low-amplitude AMFs that lyse tumor cells not by heating but by the mechanical force of rotating magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs). Superparamagnetic iron oxide MNPs serve as effective MRI contrast agents
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