%0 Journal Article
%T Iron Oxide Colloidal Nanoclusters as Theranostic Vehicles and Their Interactions at the Cellular Level
%A Alexandros Lappas
%A Amalia Anthousi
%A Anthi Ranella
%A Athanasia Kostopoulou
%A Claire Billotey
%A Eirini Fragogeorgi
%A George Loudos
%A Irene Athanassakis
%A Konstantinos Brintakis
%A Liberato Manna
%A Sylvie Begin-Colin
%J Archive of "Nanomaterials".
%D 2018
%R 10.3390/nano8050315
%X Advances in surfactant-assisted chemical approaches have led the way for the exploitation of nanoscale inorganic particles in medical diagnosis and treatment. In this field, magnetically-driven multimodal nanotools that perform both detection and therapy, well-designed in size, shape and composition, are highly advantageous. Such a theranostic material¡ªwhich entails the controlled assembly of smaller (maghemite) nanocrystals in a secondary motif that is highly dispersible in aqueous media¡ªis discussed here. These surface functionalized, pomegranate-like ferrimagnetic nanoclusters (40¨C85 nm) are made of nanocrystal subunits that show a remarkable magnetic resonance imaging contrast efficiency, which is better than that of the superparamagnetic contrast agent Endorem£¿. Going beyond this attribute and with their demonstrated low cytotoxicity in hand, we examine the critical interaction of such nanoprobes with cells at different physiological environments. The time-dependent in vivo scintigraphic imaging of mice experimental models, combined with a biodistribution study, revealed the accumulation of nanoclusters in the spleen and liver. Moreover, the in vitro proliferation of spleen cells and cytokine production witnessed a size-selective regulation of immune system cells, inferring that smaller clusters induce mainly inflammatory activities, while larger ones induce anti-inflammatory actions. The preliminary findings corroborate that the modular chemistry of magnetic iron oxide nanoclusters stimulates unexplored pathways that could be driven to alter their function in favor of healthcare
%K magnetic nanoclusters
%K multicore particle assembly
%K MRI contrast agents
%K scintigraphic imaging
%K nanoparticle biodistribution
%K cell interactions
%K immune system
%U https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5977329/