Abstract

Background: In the last years, the production and applications of nanoparticles based on iron oxides in the field of biomedicine presented a great interest due to their particular properties. Because of the expansion of the pharmaceutical industry numerous new systems for drugs delivery have appeared, and those centered on magnetic nanoparticles are in a particular attention and in different promising developmental stages.

Objective: In this mini review, some representative, interesting and feasible magnetic nanostructures obtained recently (from last 5-6 years) with possible use in antitumor/anticancer therapy are presented.

Results: The synthesis of these nanostructures with magnetic properties implies very simple assembling procedures and presents one of the lowest cytotoxic profiles. Magnetic nanostructures displayed possible appliance in a large diversity of biotechnological and medical fields, both for diagnose and therapy.

Conclusion: Different types of magnetic nano-carriers loaded with different antitumor/anticancer agents and the cases tested in vivo are considered.

Keywords: Functionalized magnetic nanostructures, anticancer therapy, drug delivery, combined drug release, imaging and hyperthermia.

Graphical Abstract