Nanoparticle Distribution
We have measured magnetic signals from known amounts of cancer cells and determined sensitivities to specific types of cancer. The chart shows several results for breast cancer cell types where the magnetic intensity (the Magnetic Moment) is measured as a function of time, after injecting a small amount of magnetic nanoparticleswith specific antibodies on them (in this case HER-2) into a known amount of cells in a culture.
These results show that the labeled nanoparticlesare quickly taken-up by the cancer cells and remain attached for many hours. They also show that some cancer cells are more specific to the HER-2 antibody than others, since the measured magnetic moment is larger. This sensitivity depends upon the number of receptor sites on the cells and the relaxometry method can be used to determine the relative number of sites for different cancer types.
The cancer cell line CHO is not a HER-2-positive breast cancer cell line and shows much smaller magnetic moments, demonstrating that we can clearly differentiate between target and non-target cells. When cells are not present, no magnetic fields are observed, meaning we only detect our specialized nanoparticleswhen they are bound to cells.
Her-2 antibodies attached to nanoparticles and added to cells. Attachment measured by magnetic relaxometry (above) or Prussian Blue Staining (below)
