Chemical and cellular characterization of SPIONs stabilized with sodium citrate

Introduction Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) represent a class of magnetic and biocompatible nanomaterials that have been widely used in research and medical applications, such as hyperthermia studies, as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging, biosensors, among others. Some studies have already evaluated several formulations containing IONPs in preclinical and clinical trials under the approval of the US Federal Agency. Methods IONPs were obtained by chemical coprecipitation, in which aqueous solutions of precursors containing iron (Fe 3+ ) and ferrous (Fe 2+ ) ions are alkalized under control of temperature and pH. The stabilization process of iron oxide nanoparticles was done by sodium citrate and characterize the hydrodynamic diameter and the zeta potential by dynamic light scattering (DLS), the morphology and the diameter by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), crystal structure by X-ray diffraction (XRD), chemical composition by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and magnetic properties by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Results The DLS, MET, and FT-IR analyses confirmed that the superparamagnetic IONPs (SPIONs) syntheses had diameters smaller than 100 nm and were stabilized since the vibrational bands were present both in the sodium citrate and SPIONs spectra. IONPs exhibit superparamagnetic behavior due to the magnetic properties of the crystalline phase. Finally, photothermal therapy study was carried out to determine the cell viability of MDA-MB-468 cell line after the application of SPIONs at concentrations of 0.5, 10, and 75 µg mL −1 by flow cytometry. Conclusion IONPs were synthesized in the nanometric range, and photothermal therapy shows promising results for triple-negative breast cancer treatment.