Feb 5, 2009
Magneto-optical study extracts encapsulation efficiency
Magnetoliposomes consist of vesicles composed of a phospholipid membrane encapsulating magnetic nanoparticles and have a range of applications including drug delivery, medical imaging and cancer treatment. For all of these applications, controlling the number of encapsulated magnetic nanoparticles is a key issue.
To study the process in detail, researchers from the Federal University of Goias, Brazil, are using the well known phenomena of magnetic colloids named magnetic birefringence, which consists of the rotation of the axis of a beam of linear polarized light passing through a field-induced birefringent material. The effect is extremely important in the case of magnetic nanoparticles suspended in liquid carriers (magnetic colloids), but has only recently been successfully applied to the investigation of magnetoliposomes.
By applying the simple, but powerful method to their system, the authors were able to extract information about the efficiency of encapsulation, the number of nanoparticles encapsulated per liposome (with and without the inclusion of cholesterol in the bilayer) and the formation of nanoparticle agglomerates (small linear chains of nanoparticles). The methodology could enable the development of more efficient magnetic nanocarriers and may be useful for other magnetic carrier systems. For example, magnetodendrimers and magnetoviruses.
The group presented its work in Nanotechnology.
About the author
The work was performed at the Federal University of Goias, which is in the city of Goiania, in the center of Brazil. The financial support came from the Brazilian agencies CNPq and FINEP. Emilio Cintra and Juracy Junior are undergraduate students, while Jose Campello is a graduate student of the Physics Institute. Fabricia Ferreira is a PhD student of the Pharmaceutical Department. Dr. Leandro Socolovsky was a postdoctoral researcher at the Physics group during the development of this research, and now has a permanent position on the University of Buenos Aires. Dr. Eliana Lima is an Associate Professor and the leader of the Pharmaceutical group. Dr. Andris Bakuzis is an Associate Professor at the Institute of Physics and is a researcher in one of the Brazilian Nanotechnology Networks named Nanobiomagnetism and the leader of the Physics group.