Encapsulamento de nanopartículas magnéticas e curcumina em sílica visando aplicações biomédicas

Abstract

Specific and multifunctional nanoparticles are increasingly present in the biomedical and pharmaceutical environment because of their various advantages. Thus, the objective of this work is to synthesize and characterize magnetic-fluorescent nanoparticles coated with silica and incorporated with drug (curcumin) in order to assess its potential as markers in magnetic resonance imaging and inverted fluorescence microscopy, magnetic hyperthermia and targeted drug-delivery. Nanoparticles were characterized as to their morphology, surface, size, crystalline structure, magnetic and fluorescent properties, and drug release. The synthesis of the iron oxide nanoparticles was performed by the coprecipitation method and observed magnetite/maghemite crystallinity, superparamagnetic characteristics, size around 12 nm, and agglomeration tendency. As the nanoparticle was encapsulated by silica, it was found that the magnetization value decreased from 65 A.m2 /kg to 9 A.m2 /kg. The study of the interaction between magnetic nanoparticles and curcumin showed that the binding occurred without the need for an intermediate compound. Finally, the complete system proposed in this work was analyzed, that is, silica nanocapsules containing nanoparticles of iron oxide and curcumin. It was possible to encapsulate approximately 28% of curcumin in this system and to visualize in the microscope the fluorescence of the nanoparticles, provided by curcumin. Therefore, the results demonstrated these nanoparticles have relevant characteristics for a future use in the diagnosis and treatment of diseases such as cancer and Alzheimer.