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    Graphene oxide functional nanohybrids with magnetic nanoparticles for improved vectorization of doxorubicin to neuroblastoma cells
    (Basel : MDPI AG, 2019) Lerra, L.; Farfalla, A.; Sanz, B.; Cirillo, G.; Vittorio, O.; Voli, F.; Grand, M.L.; Curcio, M.; Nicoletta, F.P.; Dubrovska, A.; Hampel, S.; Iemma, F.; Goya, G.F.
    With the aim to obtain a site-specific doxorubicin (DOX) delivery in neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y cells, we designed an hybrid nanocarrier combining graphene oxide (GO) and magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MNPs), acting as core elements, and a curcumin–human serum albumin conjugate as functional coating. The nanohybrid, synthesized by redox reaction between the MNPs@GO system and albumin bioconjugate, consisted of MNPs@GO nanosheets homogeneously coated by the bioconjugate as verified by SEM investigations. Drug release experiments showed a pH-responsive behavior with higher release amounts in acidic (45% at pH 5.0) vs. neutral (28% at pH 7.4) environments. Cell internalization studies proved the presence of nanohybrid inside SH-SY5Y cytoplasm. The improved efficacy obtained in viability assays is given by the synergy of functional coating and MNPs constituting the nanohybrids: while curcumin moieties were able to keep low DOX cytotoxicity levels (at concentrations of 0.44–0.88 µM), the presence of MNPs allowed remote actuation on the nanohybrid by a magnetic field, increasing the dose delivered at the target site.
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    Improved imaging of magnetically labeled cells using rotational magnetomotive optical coherence tomography
    (Basel : MDPI AG, 2017) Cimalla, P.; Walther, J.; Mueller, C.; Almedawar, S.; Rellinghaus, B.; Wittig, D.; Ader, M.; Karl, M.O.; Funk, R.H.W.; Brand, M.; Koch, E.
    In this paper, we present a reliable and robust method for magnetomotive optical coherence tomography (MM-OCT) imaging of single cells labeled with iron oxide particles. This method employs modulated longitudinal and transverse magnetic fields to evoke alignment and rotation of anisotropic magnetic structures in the sample volume. Experimental evidence suggests that magnetic particles assemble themselves in elongated chains when exposed to a permanent magnetic field. Magnetomotion in the intracellular space was detected and visualized by means of 3D OCT as well as laser speckle reflectometry as a 2D reference imaging method. Our experiments on mesenchymal stem cells embedded in agar scaffolds show that the magnetomotive signal in rotational MM-OCT is significantly increased by a factor of ˜3 compared to previous pulsed MM-OCT, although the solenoid's power consumption was 16 times lower. Finally, we use our novel method to image ARPE-19 cells, a human retinal pigment epithelium cell line. Our results permit magnetomotive imaging with higher sensitivity and the use of low power magnetic fields or larger working distances for future three-dimensional cell tracking in target tissues and organs.