The preliminary study of immune superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles for the detection of lung cancer in magnetic resonance imaging

•Oleic acid in combination with low dosage carboxymethyl dextran coated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles was prepared by chemical coprecipitation method.•The obtained nanoparticles with good water dispersion and relatively high saturation magnetization can efficiently become the transversal relaxation times (T2) contrast agent.•The obtained nanoparticles can actively target to human lung adenocarcinoma (A549) cells after conjugating with monoclonal antibody CD44v6, which would be conducive to the detection of lung cancer.

To improve the sensitive and specific detection of metastasis of lung cancer, this study fabricated immune superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) used in magnetic resonance (MR) immumoimaging. These SPIONs were coated with oleic acid and carboxymethyl dextran, and then conjugated to mouse anti-CD44v6 monoclonal antibody. The physicochemical properties of magnetic nanoparticles without monoclonal antibody were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The sizes of the nanoparticles were determined by dynamic light scattering measurements (DLS) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). Coated nanoparticles could well disperse in water with low dosage of CMD as the Fe/CMD ratio is 1/1 and 2/1 (w/w). Importantly, these SPIONs have relatively high saturation magnetization, as measured by vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). They could efficiently become the transversal relaxation times (T2) contrast agent to improve detection limit through measured in vitro magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and actively target human lung adenocarcinoma (A549) cells in vitro cell culture. Thus, these immune SPIONs are potentially useful for lung tumor-targeting diagnosis.

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