Non-pyrogenic highly pure magnetosomes for efficient hyperthermia treatment of prostate cancer

We report the fabrication of highly pure magnetosomes that are synthesized by magnetotactic bacteria (MTB) using pharmaceutically compatible growth media, i.e., without compounds of animal origin (yeast extracts), carcinogenic, mutagenic, or toxic for reproduction (CMR) products, and other heavy metals than iron. To enable magnetosome medical applications, these growth media are reduced and amended compared with media commonly used to grow these bacteria. Furthermore, magnetosomes are made non-pyrogenic by being extracted from these micro-organisms and heated above 400 °C to remove and denature bacterial organic material and produce inorganic magnetosome minerals. To be stabilized, these minerals are further coated with citric acid to yield M-CA, leading to fully reconstructed chains of magnetosomes. The heating properties and anti-tumor activity of highly pure M-CA are then studied by bringing M-CA into contact with PC3-Luc tumor cells and by exposing such assembly to an alternating magnetic field (AMF) of 42 mT and 195 kHz during 30 min. While in the absence of AMF, M-CA are observed to be non-cytotoxic, they result in a 35% decrease in cell viability following AMF application. The treatment efficacy can be associated with a specific absorption rate (SAR) value of M-CA, which is relatively high in cellular environment, i.e., SAR_cell = 253 ± 11 W/g_Fe, while being lower than the M-CA SAR value measured in water, i.e., SAR_water = 1025 ± 194 W/g_Fe, highlighting that a reduction in the Brownian contribution to the SAR value in cellular environment does not prevent efficient tumor cell destruction with these nanoparticles. KEY POINTS : • Highly pure magnetosomes were produced in pharmaceutically compatible growth media • Non-pyrogenic and stable magnetosomes were prepared for human injection • Magnetosomes efficiently destroyed prostate tumor cells in magnetic hyperthermia.