Polyaspartate coated magnetite nanoparticles for biomedical applications

The use of magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) in biomedical applications is subject to specific conditions. Special demands such as non-toxic core material and a biocompatible shell are prerequisites. These are fulfilled with magnetite cores and amino acid shell material, which provide different functional groups for coupling biomolecules as presented here. In this study the biocompatibility was tested by using breast cancer cell lines and leukocytes from peripheral blood. Functionalization with antibodies and the binding experiments detected by magneto-optical relaxation measurements confirm the bonding capacity and demonstrate the application of the presented MNP in magnetic immunoassays or magnetic drug targeting.