Superparamagnetic Nanoparticles

The therapeutic potential of superparamagnetic nanoparticles has attracted great scientific interest. So far, research has been devoted to the concept of magnetic hyperthermia for cancer therapy. This involves introducing magnetic nanoparticles into the tumour tissue and heating them – exploiting re-magnetization losses – via an alternating magnetic field to induce apoptosis in cancer cells. Ongoing efforts went into investigating magnetic nanoparticles with optimized heating properties for hyperthermia applications. In our group, we use superparamagnetic iron oxide-based nanoparticles (SPIONs) as organ-specific drug delivery vehicles for ncRNA therapeutics. This tool utilizes magnetism to facilitate spatial control and magnetic hyperthermia for temperature-induced organ-specific drug release.