A facile microwave synthetic route for ferrite nanoparticles with direct impact in magnetic particle hyperthermia

• A facile microwave hydrothermal route for manganese and cobalt ferrite nanoparticles in only 60 min and in high yield
• The as prepared ferrites exhibit high in vitro hyperthermia performance in the human osteosarcoma cell line Saos-2.
• The cytotoxicity effect on the osteoblastic cells was maximized by employment of two subsequent hyperthermia cycles.
• Saos-2 is concerned as a valuable model for cancer studies.

The application of ferrite magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in medicine finds its rapidly developing emphasis on heating mediators for magnetic hyperthermia, the ever-promising “fourth leg” of cancer treatment. Usage of MNPs depends largely on the preparation processes to select optimal conditions and effective routes to finely tailor MNPs. Microwave heating, instead of conventional heating offers nanocrystals at significantly enhanced rate and yield. In this work, a facile mass-production microwave hydrothermal synthetic approach was used to synthesize stable ferromagnetic manganese and cobalt ferrite nanoparticles with sizes smaller than 14 nm from metal acetylacetonates in the presence of octadecylamine. Prolonging the reaction time from 15 to 60 min, led to ferrites with improved crystallinity while the sizes are slight increased. The high crystallinity magnetic nanoparticles showed exceptional magnetic heating parameters. In vitro application was performed using the human osteosarcoma cell line Saos-2 incubated with manganese ferrite nanoparticles. Hyperthermia applied in a two cycle process, while AC magnetic field remained on until the upper limit of 45 °C was achieved. The comparative results of the AC hyperthermia efficiency of ferrite nanoparticles in combination with the in vitro study coincide with the magnetic features and their tunability may be further exploited for AC magnetic hyperthermia driven applications.

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