Magnetic superparamagnetic-like microparticles for cancer cells destruction

To improve cancer treatment with reduced side effects, several techniques are currently under investigation, such as targeted drug delivery or hyperthermia . This work is related to the study of a newly discovered technique: the triggering of cancer cell apoptosis by mechanical vibrations of magnetic microparticles attached to the cancer cells membrane . This method, which targets only diseased cells, was firstly demonstrated by Kim et al in 2010. The method consists in specifically attaching magnetic anisotropic particles to cancer cells membrane and then applying a weak alternative magnetic field . The induced particles vibrations generate a stress on the cells membrane. A chemical chain reaction is then triggered, which causes the reactivation of the apoptosis of cancer cells . The triggering of the apoptosis of human renal cancer cells was also demonstrated by SPINTEC. The magnetic particles used for this purpose have to respect a few specifications: they must have a sufficiently large volume, they must be anisotropic so that they can be actuated by a magnetic field rather than a gradient of magnetic field, and they have to be superparamagnetic-like in order to avoid any aggregation in solution . Two types of magnetic particles fulfilling these specifications were developed in this work: permalloy particles presenting a vortex structure and magnetite particles presenting a polycrystalline random anisotropy configuration .