Magnetic Targeting of Drug Carriers and Cells for Local Therapeutics

The ability to manipulate and direct drug carriers and cells towards specific sites is of great importance in the field of biomedicine, with many potential implications in therapeutics and in the development of bio-chip devices. A recent and innovative approach to achieve site specific targeting is by incorporating magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) within drug carriers and cells, enabling the magnetic complex to be remotely-guided by external magnetic field gradients. In our study, we develop magnetic drug carriers for the delivery of active molecules to desired locations and use pre-designed magnetic fields setups to direct the magnetic complexes towards specific target sites. We synthesize magnetic complexes by conjugating iron oxide nanoparticles to proteins. Specifically, we conjugate NGF protein to MNPs to spatially control the differentiation of PC12 cells. Using the pre-designed magnetic fields setups we successfully differentiate selected populations of cells in culture. In addition, we show the ability to magnetically direct these carriers in vivo. Moreover, we magnetize cells via MNPs and control their migration and distribution by magnetic hot spots. Cells are incubated with MNPs and turn sensitive to magnetic stimulation with no cytotoxic effect. Using magnetic micro-patterned substrates, we locate MNPs-loaded cells at specific sites, promote cellular growth and affect growth orientation. Our research presents a new concept of directing biological elements to specific areas of interest. This methodology may greatly contribute to the fields of drug and cell therapy as they both deal with the challenge of directing drugs or engineered cells to the site of damage in order to improve treatment efficiency while minimizing side effects.