Biomagnetics

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Biomagnetics is a field of biotechnology. It has actively been researched since at least 2004. [1] Although the majority of structures found in living organisms are diamagnetic, the magnetic field itself, as well as magnetic nanoparticles, microstructures and paramagnetic molecules can influence specific physiological functions of organisms under certain conditions. The effect of magnetic fields on biosystems is a topic of research that falls under the biomagnetic umbrella, as well as the construction of magnetic structures or systems that are either biocompatible, biodegradable or biomimetic. [1] Magnetic nanoparticles and magnetic microparticles are known to interact with certain prokaryotes and certain eukaryotes. [2]

Magnetic nanoparticles under the influence of magnetic and electromagnetic fields were shown to modulate redox reactions for the inhibition or the promotion of animal tumor growth. The mechanism underlying nanomagnetic modulation involves the convergence of magnetochemical [3] and magneto-mechanical [4] reactions.

History

In 2014, biotechnicians at Monash University noticed that "the efficiency of delivery of DNA vaccines is often relatively low compared to protein vaccines" and on this basis suggested the use of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) to deliver genetic materials via magnetofection because it increases the efficiency of drug delivery. [5]

As of 2021, interactions have been studied between low cost iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) and the main groups of biomolecules: proteins, lipids, nucleic acids and carbohydrates. [6] There have been suggestions of magnetically-targeted drug delivery systems, in particular for the cationic peptide lasioglossin. [7]

Around May 2021 rumours abounded that certain mRNA biotech delivery systems were magnetically active. Prompted by state-owned broadcaster France24 , fr:Julien Bobroff who specialises in magnetism and teaches at the University of Paris-Saclay debunked the claims of Covid-19 conspiracy theorists using an ad verecundiam argument, as follows: "A vaccine against Covid-19... that would make magnets stick to the skin once injected is absolutely impossible from a scientific standpoint." [8]

Related Research Articles

Nanomedicine is the medical application of nanotechnology. Nanomedicine ranges from the medical applications of nanomaterials and biological devices, to nanoelectronic biosensors, and even possible future applications of molecular nanotechnology such as biological machines. Current problems for nanomedicine involve understanding the issues related to toxicity and environmental impact of nanoscale materials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Superparamagnetism</span>

Superparamagnetism is a form of magnetism which appears in small ferromagnetic or ferrimagnetic nanoparticles. In sufficiently small nanoparticles, magnetization can randomly flip direction under the influence of temperature. The typical time between two flips is called the Néel relaxation time. In the absence of an external magnetic field, when the time used to measure the magnetization of the nanoparticles is much longer than the Néel relaxation time, their magnetization appears to be in average zero; they are said to be in the superparamagnetic state. In this state, an external magnetic field is able to magnetize the nanoparticles, similarly to a paramagnet. However, their magnetic susceptibility is much larger than that of paramagnets.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanocomposite</span> Solid material with nano-scale structure

Nanocomposite is a multiphase solid material where one of the phases has one, two or three dimensions of less than 100 nanometers (nm) or structures having nano-scale repeat distances between the different phases that make up the material.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drug delivery</span> Methods for delivering drugs to target sites

Drug delivery refers to approaches, formulations, manufacturing techniques, storage systems, and technologies involved in transporting a pharmaceutical compound to its target site to achieve a desired therapeutic effect. Principles related to drug preparation, route of administration, site-specific targeting, metabolism, and toxicity are used to optimize efficacy and safety, and to improve patient convenience and compliance. Drug delivery is aimed at altering a drug's pharmacokinetics and specificity by formulating it with different excipients, drug carriers, and medical devices. There is additional emphasis on increasing the bioavailability and duration of action of a drug to improve therapeutic outcomes. Some research has also been focused on improving safety for the person administering the medication. For example, several types of microneedle patches have been developed for administering vaccines and other medications to reduce the risk of needlestick injury.

Cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) are short peptides that facilitate cellular intake and uptake of molecules ranging from nanosize particles to small chemical compounds to large fragments of DNA. The "cargo" is associated with the peptides either through chemical linkage via covalent bonds or through non-covalent interactions.

Nanotoxicology is the study of the toxicity of nanomaterials. Because of quantum size effects and large surface area to volume ratio, nanomaterials have unique properties compared with their larger counterparts that affect their toxicity. Of the possible hazards, inhalation exposure appears to present the most concern, with animal studies showing pulmonary effects such as inflammation, fibrosis, and carcinogenicity for some nanomaterials. Skin contact and ingestion exposure are also a concern.

Magnetofection is a transfection method that uses magnetic fields to concentrate particles containing vectors to target cells in the body. Magnetofection has been adapted to a variety of vectors, including nucleic acids, non-viral transfection systems, and viruses. This method offers advantages such as high transfection efficiency and biocompatibility which are balanced with limitations.

Magnetic-targeted carriers, also known as MTCs or magnetic vehicles, are micro- or nanoparticles that carry an anticancer drug to the target site by using an external magnetic field and field gradient to direct the desired drug. Usually the complex involves microscopic beads of activated carbon, which bind the anticancer drug. A magnet applied from outside the body then can direct the drug to the tumor site. This can keep a larger dose of the drug at the tumor site for a longer period of time, and help protect healthy tissue from the side effects of chemotherapy.

Magnetic nanoparticles are a class of nanoparticle that can be manipulated using magnetic fields. Such particles commonly consist of two components, a magnetic material, often iron, nickel and cobalt, and a chemical component that has functionality. While nanoparticles are smaller than 1 micrometer in diameter, the larger microbeads are 0.5–500 micrometer in diameter. Magnetic nanoparticle clusters that are composed of a number of individual magnetic nanoparticles are known as magnetic nanobeads with a diameter of 50–200 nanometers. Magnetic nanoparticle clusters are a basis for their further magnetic assembly into magnetic nanochains. The magnetic nanoparticles have been the focus of much research recently because they possess attractive properties which could see potential use in catalysis including nanomaterial-based catalysts, biomedicine and tissue specific targeting, antimicrobial agents, magnetically tunable colloidal photonic crystals, microfluidics, magnetic resonance imaging, magnetic particle imaging, data storage, environmental remediation, nanofluids, optical filters, defect sensor, magnetic cooling and cation sensors.

A subunit vaccine is a vaccine that contains purified parts of the pathogen that are antigenic, or necessary to elicit a protective immune response. A "subunit" vaccine doesn't contain the whole pathogen, unlike live attenuated or inactivated vaccine, but contains only the antigenic parts such as proteins, polysaccharides or peptides. Because the vaccine doesn't contain "live" components of the pathogen, there is no risk of introducing the disease, and is safer and more stable than vaccine containing whole pathogens. Other advantages include being well-established technology and being suitable for immunocompromised individuals. Disadvantages include being relatively complex to manufacture compared to some vaccines, possibly requiring adjuvants and booster shots, and requiring time to examine which antigenic combinations may work best.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solid lipid nanoparticle</span> Novel drug delivery system

lipid nanoparticles (LNPs), are nanoparticles composed of lipids. They are a novel pharmaceutical drug delivery system, and a novel pharmaceutical formulation. LNPs as a drug delivery vehicle were first approved in 2018 for the siRNA drug Onpattro. LNPs became more widely known in late 2020, as some COVID-19 vaccines that use RNA vaccine technology coat the fragile mRNA strands with PEGylated lipid nanoparticles as their delivery vehicle.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron oxide nanoparticle</span>

Iron oxide nanoparticles are iron oxide particles with diameters between about 1 and 100 nanometers. The two main forms are magnetite and its oxidized form maghemite. They have attracted extensive interest due to their superparamagnetic properties and their potential applications in many fields.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vectors in gene therapy</span>

Gene therapy utilizes the delivery of DNA into cells, which can be accomplished by several methods, summarized below. The two major classes of methods are those that use recombinant viruses and those that use naked DNA or DNA complexes.

Nanoparticles for drug delivery to the brain is a method for transporting drug molecules across the blood–brain barrier (BBB) using nanoparticles. These drugs cross the BBB and deliver pharmaceuticals to the brain for therapeutic treatment of neurological disorders. These disorders include Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, schizophrenia, depression, and brain tumors. Part of the difficulty in finding cures for these central nervous system (CNS) disorders is that there is yet no truly efficient delivery method for drugs to cross the BBB. Antibiotics, antineoplastic agents, and a variety of CNS-active drugs, especially neuropeptides, are a few examples of molecules that cannot pass the BBB alone. With the aid of nanoparticle delivery systems, however, studies have shown that some drugs can now cross the BBB, and even exhibit lower toxicity and decrease adverse effects throughout the body. Toxicity is an important concept for pharmacology because high toxicity levels in the body could be detrimental to the patient by affecting other organs and disrupting their function. Further, the BBB is not the only physiological barrier for drug delivery to the brain. Other biological factors influence how drugs are transported throughout the body and how they target specific locations for action. Some of these pathophysiological factors include blood flow alterations, edema and increased intracranial pressure, metabolic perturbations, and altered gene expression and protein synthesis. Though there exist many obstacles that make developing a robust delivery system difficult, nanoparticles provide a promising mechanism for drug transport to the CNS.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iron–platinum nanoparticle</span>

Iron–platinum nanoparticles are 3D superlattices composed of an approximately equal atomic ratio of Fe and Pt. Under standard conditions, FePt NPs exist in the face-centered cubic phase but can change to a chemically ordered face-centered tetragonal phase as a result of thermal annealing. Currently there are many synthetic methods such as water-in-oil microemulsion, one-step thermal synthesis with metal precursors, and exchanged-coupled assembly for making FePt NPs. An important property of FePt NPs is their superparamagnetic character below 10 nanometers. The superparamagnetism of FePt NPs has made them attractive candidates to be used as MRI/CT scanning agents and a high-density recording material.

Magnetogenetics refers to a biological technique that involves the use of magnetic fields to remotely control cell activity.

Superparamagnetic relaxometry (SPMR) is a technology combining the use of sensitive magnetic sensors and the superparamagnetic properties of magnetite nanoparticles (NP). For NP of a sufficiently small size, on the order of tens of nanometers (nm), the NP exhibit paramagnetic properties, i.e., they have little or no magnetic moment. When they are exposed to a small external magnetic field, on the order of a few millitesla (mT), the NP align with that field and exhibit ferromagnetic properties with large magnetic moments. Following removal of the magnetizing field, the NP slowly become thermalized, decaying with a distinct time constant from the ferromagnetic state back to the paramagnetic state. This time constant depends strongly upon the NP diameter and whether they are unbound or bound to an external surface such as a cell. Measurement of this decaying magnetic field is typically done by superconducting quantum interference detectors (SQUIDs). The magnitude of the field during the decay process determines the magnetic moment of the NPs in the source. A spatial contour map of the field distribution determines the location of the source in three dimensions as well as the magnetic moment.

Magnetoelastic filaments are one-dimensional composite structures that exhibit both magnetic and elastic properties. Interest in these materials tends to focus on the ability to precisely control mechanical events using an external magnetic field. Like piezoelectricity materials, they can be used as actuators, but do not need to be physically connected to a power source. The conformations adopted by magnetoelastic filaments are dictated by the competition between its elastic and magnetic properties.

mRNA vaccine Type of vaccine

An mRNAvaccine is a type of vaccine that uses a copy of a molecule called messenger RNA (mRNA) to produce an immune response. The vaccine delivers molecules of antigen-encoding mRNA into immune cells, which use the designed mRNA as a blueprint to build foreign protein that would normally be produced by a pathogen or by a cancer cell. These protein molecules stimulate an adaptive immune response that teaches the body to identify and destroy the corresponding pathogen or cancer cells. The mRNA is delivered by a co-formulation of the RNA encapsulated in lipid nanoparticles that protect the RNA strands and help their absorption into the cells.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Intracellular delivery</span> Scientific research area

Intracellular delivery is the process of introducing external materials into living cells. Materials that are delivered into cells include nucleic acids, proteins, peptides, impermeable small molecules, synthetic nanomaterials, organelles, and micron-scale tracers, devices and objects. Such molecules and materials can be used to investigate cellular behavior, engineer cell operations or correct a pathological function.

References

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  2. Safarik, Ivo; Pospiskova, Kristyna; Baldikova, Eva; Safarikova, Mirka (2017). Das, Surajit; Dash, Hirak Ranjan (eds.). "Magnetically Responsive Microbial Cells for Metal Ions Removal and Detection". Handbook of Metal-Microbe Interactions and Bioremediation. doi:10.1201/9781315153353. ISBN   9781315153353.
  3. Orel, Valerii E.; Tselepi, Marina; Mitrelias, Thanos; Zabolotny, Mykhailo; Krotevich, Mykhailo; Shevchenko, Anatoliy; Rykhalskyi, Alexander; Romanov, Andriy; Orel, Valerii B.; Burlaka, Anatoliy; Lukin, Sergey; Stegnii, Vladyslav; Barnes, Crispin H.W. (16 September 2019). "Nonlinear Magnetochemical Effects in Nanotherapy of Walker-256 Carcinosarcoma". ACS Applied Bio Materials. 2 (9): 3954–3963. doi:10.1021/acsabm.9b00526. PMID   35021328. S2CID   201251596.
  4. Orel, Valerii E.; Dasyukevich, Olga; Rykhalskyi, Oleksandr; Orel, Valerii B.; Burlaka, Anatoliy; Virko, Sergii (November 2021). "Magneto-mechanical effects of magnetite nanoparticles on Walker-256 carcinosarcoma heterogeneity, redox state and growth modulated by an inhomogeneous stationary magnetic field". Journal of Magnetism and Magnetic Materials. 538: 168314. Bibcode:2021JMMM..53868314O. doi:10.1016/j.jmmm.2021.168314.
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  8. "Covid-19 vaccine: does the 'magnet challenge' work?". france24. The Observers. 21 May 2021.