Abstracts Biological Sciences

Synthesis and surface modification of magnetic nanoparticles for potential applications of sarcomas diagnosis and therapy

by Sorour Shahbazi

Nowadays, enormous research efforts focus on the diagnosis and therapy of different types of sarcomas, which are rare but malignant cancers. The application of nano-science in cancer therapy has become one of the most attractive tools in scientific research because of its versatility in diagnosis and treatment. In particular, multifunctional and multimodal magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles can offer solutions in diverse areas of sarcoma, as one of the most desirable noninvasive magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents, as well as drug, ligand and gene nanocarrier. It is also an outstanding hyperthermia agent via generating local heat under an alternative magnetic field. Iron oxide nanoparticles are renowned because of their low toxicity and suitability for treatment and diagnosis of different types of cancers; however, in some cases, iron oxide nanoparticles may result in severe damage of DNA, protein, and lipid. To our knowledge research investigating the cytotoxicity effect of iron oxide nanoparticles with different physiochemical characteristics in sarcoma is limited, which presents some major issues that need to be carefully considered. In this study, we initially prepared desirable iron oxide nanoparticles with hydrothermal synthesis and thermal decomposition methods. We modified the aforementioned methods in order to create a desirable range of size of magnetic nanoparticles for bio application (200, 100, 20 and 10 nm). We, also, modified the surface of nanoparticles with different types of coatings (polyethylene glycol (PEG), D-glucose (DG) and silica) under mild conditions to increase their bio-compatibility, bioavailability and colloidal stability. Various methods were used to illustrate and quantify cellular uptake of magnetic nanoparticles in sarcoma cell lines. Finally, the safety of the nanoparticles uptake on diverse human sarcoma cell lines was investigated and found that the readily available iron oxide nanoparticles can be safely taken up by synovial sarcoma and liposarcoma cell lines in the selective histological tumor types; however, they seem highly toxic for fibrous histiocytoma and fibrosarcoma. Advisors/Committee Members: Sean, Li, Materials Science & Engineering, Faculty of Science, UNSW, Jia Lin, Yang, Clinical School - Prince of Wales Hospital, Faculty of Medicine, UNSW.