Computational evaluation of malignant tissue apoptosis in magnetic hyperthermia considering intratumoral injection strategy

Magnetic hyperthermia can result in the apoptosis of malignant cells and the safety of normal cells when bio-tissue contained magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) is exposed to a specific range of treatment temperature due to an applied magnetic field. Magnetic hyperthermia covers lots of different aspects while earlier studies focused primarily on one of them and less on their correlations. This paper develops a set of theoretical and mathematical model to evaluate the apoptosis behavior for a proposed geometric model, in which intratumoral injection of nanofluid is considered for therapy. This framework mainly integrates the applied magnetic field due to a proposed solenoid coil, the nanofluid concentration field after the intratumoral injection, and the treatment temperature field due to the power dissipation of MNPs. The magnetic and concentration fields can determine the heat production of MNPs, which is significantly relevant to the apoptosis situation due to the treatment temperature distribution inside tumor region during therapy. These three physical fields can be predicted by solving their individual partial differential equations using finite element method after considering their initial and boundary conditions. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed approach can be used to model the entire process of magnetic hyperthermia and the apoptosis situation of malignant cells can be predicted by the coupling manner for three different fields during therapy. In addition, the apoptosis situation can be effectively improved when a specific critical power dissipation of MNPs is designed for different nanofluid concentration distribution with different diffusion duration. With further developments, this proposed model may be used for the planning of nanofluid hyperthermia. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

Magnetic hyperthermia has the potential to induce apoptosis in malignant cells while ensuring the safety of normal cells by exposing bio-tissue containing magnetic nanoparticles to a specific treatment temperature range under a magnetic field. This paper develops a theoretical and mathematical model to evaluate apoptosis behavior in a proposed geometric model for therapy, considering the impact of magnetic and concentration fields on heat production of MNPs and subsequent apoptosis in tumor regions. The study suggests that the proposed approach can effectively predict the apoptosis situation of malignant cells by coupling different physical fields during therapy, and may have implications for the planning of nanofluid hyperthermia.