Elimination of Tumor Cells Using Folate Receptor Targeting by Antibody-Conjugated, Gold-Coated Magnetite Nanoparticles in a Murine Breast Cancer Model

Background. The chemotherapeutic treatment of cancer suffers from poor specificity for targeting the tumor cells and often results in adverse effects such as systemic toxicity, damage to nontarget tissues, and development of drug-resistant tumors in patients. Increasingly, drug nanocarriers have been explored as a way of lessening or overcoming these problems. In this study, antibody-conjugated Au-coated magnetite nanoparticles, in conjunction with inductive heating produced by exposure to an oscillating magnetic field (OMF), were evaluated for their effects on the viability of tumor cells in a murine model of breast cancer. Treatment effects were evaluated by light microscopy and SEM. Results. 4T1 mammary epithelial carcinoma cells overexpressing the folate receptor were targeted with an anti-folate receptor primary antibody, followed by labeling with secondary antibody-conjugated Au-coated magnetite nanoparticles. In the absence of OMF exposure, nanoparticle labeling had no effect on 4T1 cell viability. However, following OMF treatment, many of the labeled 4T1 cells showed extensive membrane damage by SEM analysis, and dramatically reduced viability as assessed using a live/dead staining assay. Conclusions. These results demonstrate that Au-coated magnetite targeted to tumor cells through binding to an overexpressed surface receptor, in the presence of an OMF, can lead to tumor cell death.