Glutamic acid as coating for magnetic nanoparticles: a platform for diverse biomedical applications

NATALIA MORENO; NATALIA SCHEVERIN; MARIELA AGOTEGARAY; VERÓNICA LASSALLE

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Reunión Anual de Sociedades de Biociencia SAIC.SAFE.SAB.SAP.; 2019

Coating of iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles (IOMNPs) with biocompatible molecules ismandatory for biomedical applications. The election of amino acids as coating agents is becausetheir ability in surface stabilization of IOMNPs being also inexpensive and nontoxic. In the presentwork, glutamic acid (GA) was selected as coating agent aiming to obtain GA-modified IOMNPswith suitable physicochemical properties, including stability, for biomedical applications.The co-precipitation method was applied to obtain IOMNPs functionalized with GA. Twoexperimental procedures were evaluated varying the order of GA incorporation. In the firstprocedure (1), an aqueous solution of GA was added under magnetic stirring to a mixture ofFeCl 3 .6H 2 O and FeSO 4 . In the second case (2), the mixture of iron salts was added to the aqueoussolution of GA. Both reactions were conducted under N 2 atmosphere at 70°C. A solution of NaOHwas added dropwise. After 30 min, the supernatants were removed, and the resultant solids werewashed and dried at 45°C. The same procedure was applied to obtain bare IOMNPs. The resultantformulations were studied by FTIR, DLS to determine hydrodynamic diameter and isoelectric point,TEM, atomic absorption spectroscopy (for iron content determination) and DRX.Data analysis revealed that the method 2 allowed the efficient functionalization of IOMNPs withGA rendering a formulation with hydrodynamic diameter of 226.0 nm with spherical shape. Thefirst method render IOMNPs with similar properties than bare IOMNPs, revealing thatfunctionalization with GA was not successful.The method applied to functionalize IOMNPs with GA was dependent on the order of reactantsaggregation. It was possible to obtain IOMNPs coated with GA (IOMNPs@GA) with suitableproperties for biomedical applications. The exposure of functional groups such as carboxylatemoieties allows to the potential anchoring of diverse molecules (drugs or biomolecules) for thelocated treatment of multiple diseases.