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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Nanobiotechnology
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2024.1498120
This article is part of the Research Topic Nanotechnology-Based Delivery Systems for Cancer Treatment View all articles

Loading of monocytes with magnetic nanoparticles enables their magnetic control without toxicity

Provisionally accepted
Laura Mödl Laura Mödl 1,2Lucas Robert Carnell Lucas Robert Carnell 1Rene Stein Rene Stein 1Andrea Kerpes Andrea Kerpes 1Felix Pfister Felix Pfister 1Barbara Wirthl Barbara Wirthl 3Wolfgang A. Wall Wolfgang A. Wall 3Christoph Alexiou Christoph Alexiou 1Christina Janko Christina Janko 1*
  • 1 Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany
  • 2 Faculty of Sciences, Friedrich Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Bavaria, Germany
  • 3 Institute for Computational Mechanics, Technical University of Munich, Munich, Bavaria, Germany

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Background: With the help of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs), cells can be magnetically directed so that they can be accumulated at target sites. This principle can be used to make monocytes magnetically steerable in order to improve tumor accumulation, e.g., for immunotherapy with chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) monocytes. Here, we investigated the loading of monocytic THP-1 cells with SPIONs, analyzed their impact on the viability and cellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation and their magnetic enrichment. Finally, we compared and confirmed the experimentally generated magnetic enrichment data with computational simulations.When THP-1 cells were incubated with citrate-coated SPIONs (SPION Citrate ) or citrate-stabilized gold-coated SPIONs (SPION Gold ), cells ingested the particles, as determined via transmission electron microscopy and atomic emission spectroscopy. Flow cytometry showed that the particles were biocompatible and produced hardly any ROS. With SPION-loading, cells accumulated in Ibidi flow slides at the edge of a Neodym magnet, where the magnetic field and force were maximal, as calculated by our computational model.THP-1 cells were successfully loaded with SPIONs, which exhibited excellent biocompatibility and provided the cells with magnetic steerability. The computational model predicted the actual magnetic accumulation of the SPION-loaded cells, enabling a more systematic and faster exploration of the design space in the future.

    Keywords: Iron oxide nanoparticles, Computer Simulation, magnetic cell targeting, Nanomedicine, Solid cancer

    Received: 18 Sep 2024; Accepted: 16 Dec 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Mödl, Carnell, Stein, Kerpes, Pfister, Wirthl, Wall, Alexiou and Janko. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Christina Janko, Department of Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University Hospital Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.