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Updated: May 5, 2026
Monitoring of Nanodrug Accumulation in Murine Breast Cancer Metastases
Published on: August 23, 2024
Targeted fluoromagnetic nanoparticles for imaging of breast cancer mcf-7 cells
Mostafa Heidari Majd1, Jaleh Barar, Davoud Asgari
1Research Center for Pharmaceutical Nanotechnology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran. ; Faculty of Pharmacy, Zabol University of Medical Sciences, Zabol, Iran. ; Student Research Committee, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran.
Purpose:
To achieve simultaneous imaging and therapy potentials, targeted fluoromagnetic nanoparticles were synthesized and examined in human breast cancer MCF-7 cells.
Methods:
Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) were synthesized through thermal decomposition of Fe(acac)3. Then, magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) modified by dopamine-poly ethylene glycol (PEG)-NH2; finally, half equivalent fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC) and half equivalent folic acid were conjugated to one equivalent of it. The presence of Fe3O4-DPA-PEG-FA/FITC in the folate receptor (FR) positive MCF-7 cells was determined via fluorescent microscopy to monitor the cellular interaction of MNPs.
Results:
FT-IR spectra of final compound confirmed existence of fluorescein on folic acid grafted MNPs. The Fe3O4-DPA-PEG-FA/FITC NPs, which displayed a size rang about 30-35 nm using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM), were able to actively recognize the FR-positive MCF-7 cells, but not the FR-negative A549 cells.
Conclusion:
The uniform nano-sized Fe3O4-DPA-PEG-FA/FITC NPs displayed great potential as theranostics and can be used for targeted imaging of various tumors that overexpress FR.
