Related Experiment Video
Updated: Oct 15, 2025
Polyethyleneimine-coated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles as a Vehicle for the Delivery of Small Interfering RNA to Macrophages In Vitro and In Vivo
Published on: February 5, 2019
Synthesis, Characterization, and Cytotoxicity Evaluation of Polyethylene Glycol-Coated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for
Madhuri Anuje1, Padmaja N Pawaskar1, Vishwajeet Khot1
1Department of Medical Physics, Center for Interdisciplinary Research, D.Y. Patil Education Society (Deemed to be University), Kolhapur,Maharashtra, India.
Background:
Treatment methods for cancer that are widely being utilized affect both normal and cancerous cells. We report synthesis polyethylene glycol (PEG)-coated Fe3O4 nanoparticles (NPs) and its characteristic properties and appraise its potential as a promising radiation sensitizer candidate in radiotherapy that improves cancer treatment and reduces side effects of radiation.
Materials And Methods:
PEG-coated Fe3O4 NPs were synthesized by chemical coprecipitation method and characterized by studying their size, structure, functional group, stability, magnetization, and cytotoxicity using different techniques. X-ray powder diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermogravimetric analysis results show that Fe3O4 NPs have been functionalized with PEG molecules during the course of synthesis.
Results:
Synthesized NPs have good stability based on zeta-potential study. Dynamic light-scattering results reveal that PEG-coated Fe3O4 has a greater hydrodynamic size than bare Fe3O4. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) micrograph exhibited that NPs are roughly spherical with size in range of 10-20 nm. Saturation magnetization value of PEG-coated and bare Fe3O4 also confirms coating and shows superparamagnetic behavior. Cytotoxicity evaluation study indicated that PEG-coated Fe3O4 is biocompatible on L929 and toxic on Michigan Cancer Foundation-7 (MCF-7) (breast cancer cells).
Conclusion:
These characterized properties of PEG-coated Fe3O4 NPs show that it could be used as a potential radiosensitizer candidate in radiotherapy to significantly improve cancer treatment and minimize painful side effects of radiation.
