Magnetic nanoparticle design for medical applications

Magnetic nanoparticles have attracted attention because of their current and potential usefulness as contrast agents for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) or colloidal mediators for cancer magnetic hyperthermia. This contribution examines these in vivo applications through an understanding of the involved problems and the current and future possibilities for resolving them. A special emphasis is made on magnetic nanoparticle requirements from a physical viewpoint (e.g. relaxivity for MRI and specific absorption rate for hyperthermia), the factors affecting their biodistribution and the solutions envisaged for enhancing their half-life in the blood compartment and targeting tumour cells. Then, the synthesis strategies developed in our group are presented and focused on covalent platforms capable to be tailor-derivatised by surface molecular chemistry. The opportunity of using more complex oxides than conventional magnetite for controlling the in vivo temperature is also discussed.