Magnetic heating properties and neutron activation of tungsten-oxide coated biocompatible FePt core-shell nanoparticles

Magnetic nanoparticles are highly desirable for biomedical research and treatment of cancer especially when combined with hyperthermia. The efficacy of nanoparticle-based therapies could be improved by generating radioactive nanoparticles with a convenient decay time and which simultaneously have the capability to be used for locally confined heating. The core-shell morphology of such novel nanoparticles presented in this work involves a polysilico-tungstate molecule of the polyoxometalate family as a precursor coating material, which transforms into an amorphous tungsten oxide coating upon annealing of the FePt core-shell nanoparticles. The content of tungsten atoms in the nanoparticle shell is neutron activated using cold neutrons at the Heinz Maier-Leibnitz (FRMII) neutron facility and thereby transformed into the radioisotope W-187. The sizeable natural abundance of 28% for the W-186 precursor isotope, a radiopharmaceutically advantageous gamma-beta ratio of γβ≈30% and a range of approximately 1 mm in biological tissue for the 1.3 MeV β-radiation are promising features of the nanoparticles' potential for cancer therapy. Moreover, a high temperature annealing treatment enhances the magnetic moment of nanoparticles in such a way that a magnetic heating effect of several degrees Celsius in liquid suspension - a prerequisite for hyperthermia treatment of cancer - was observed. A rise in temperature of approximately 3 °C in aqueous suspension is shown for a moderate nanoparticle concentration of 0.5 mg/ml after 15 min in an 831 kHz high-frequency alternating magnetic field of 250 Gauss field strength (25 mT). The biocompatibility based on a low cytotoxicity in the non-neutron-activated state in combination with the hydrophilic nature of the tungsten oxide shell makes the coated magnetic FePt nanoparticles ideal candidates for advanced radiopharmaceutical applications.