Gliomas display a poor disease prognosis causing death within 12 to 15 months after diagnosis. Surgery combining chemotherapy is the major clinical treatment. Chemotherapy has offered some hope to target this, however, it is majorly ineffective due to the natural restriction of blood brain barrier (BBB), low therapeutic window, poor efficacy and high cytotoxicity. To overcome these challenges, we conjugated Angiopep-2, a BBB penetrating peptide to highly biocompatible Iron Gold alloy nanoparticles (Fe-Au NPs) and investigated the ability of Ang-Fe-Au Nps conjugate to serve as MRI contrast agent and limit glioma growth via magnetic field induced hyperthermia. This developed NPs are composed of highly biocompatible elements which convincing the clinical practice. The dual application of this platform opens new opportunities towards cancer theranostics with minimal invasiveness. This article has been published in the SCI journal, Applied Materials Today. (2018 Impact Factor: 8.013)

Gliomas display a poor disease prognosis causing death. Chemotherapy has offered some hope to target this, however, it is majorly ineffective due to the natural restriction of blood brain barrier (BBB), low therapeutic window, poor efficacy and high cytotoxicity. In this study we conjugated Angiopep-2, a BBB penetrating peptide to highly biocompatible Iron Gold alloy nanoparticles (Fe-Au NPs) and investigated the ability of Ang-Fe-Au Nps conjugate to serve as MRI contrast agent and limit glioma growth via magnetic guidance and magnetic field induced hyperthermia. Our results show that Fe-Au NPs are specific glioma targeting and could effectively inhibit the growth of glioma. The dual application of this platform opens new opportunities towards cancer theranostics with minimal invasiveness.

In this study we conjugated Angiopep-2, a blood brain barrier penetrating peptide to highly biocompatible Iron Gold alloy nanoparticles (Fe-Au NPs) and investigated the ability of Ang-Fe-Au Nps conjugate to serve as MRI contrast agent and limit glioma growth via magnetic guidance and magnetic field induced hyperthermia. Our results show that Fe-Au NPs are specific glioma targeting and could effectively inhibit the growth of glioma. The dual application of this platform opens new opportunities towards cancer theranostics with minimal invasiveness. Iron oxide nanoparticle has been approved by FDA, and gold nanoparticle is also investigated in clinical trial. The highly biocompatible Iron Gold alloy nanoparticles are of great potential in future clinical and industrial applications.