Preparation, characterization, and evaluation of amino acid modified magnetic nanoparticles: drug delivery and MRI contrast agent applications

Abstract

This study is a report about the synthesis iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (IONPs) which modified with positive and negative charged amino acids (AAs). l-Arginine (Arg) and l-aspartic acid (Asp) which have of guanidinium and carboxylic acid groups, respectively, were selected for this study. After loading chrysin in amino acids modified iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (F@AAs@Chrysin NPs), it was characterized by XRD, TGA, FTIR, VSM, and TEM techniques. Finally, MTT assays on HFF-2 and HEK-293 cell lines were performed for determination of biocompatibility of AA coated IONPs. The results show that, the ζ-potential and average size of F@Arg@chrysin NPs and F@Asp@chrysin NPs were to −3.87, −2.12 mV, 18.75 ± 2.40 (mean ± SD (n = 50)) nm, and 19.86 ± 2.22 (mean ± SD (n = 48)) nm, respectively. Also, the results indicated that these F@AAs@Chrysin NPs were appropriate for delivery of chrysin. Furthermore, the phantom MRI studies showed the IONPs can be used as contrast agent for the revealing of tumor.

Graphical Abstract

Keywords:

• Magnetic nanoparticles
• hemolysis
• MRI
• theranostic
• drug delivery
• chrysin

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work has been supported financially by Faculty of Pharmacy, Zanjan University of Medical Sciences, Zanjan, Iran (Grant no. A-12-430-20).