Magnetic Vortex Nanoparticles: an Innovative Magnetic Nanoplatform for Biomedical Application

The application of magnetic nanoparticles on biomedicine has gained increased interest in recent years because of their unique magnetic properties such as superparamagnetism. However, magnetic nanoparticles possess these desirable features at the expense of particle size and magnetic properties such as reduced saturation magnetization and susceptibility, which in turn has affected its performance in bioapplication. In comparison with superparamagnettic nanoparticle, magnetic vortex nanoparticles with unique magnetic domain structure and relatively large particle size, has shown superior magnetic properties, which make them a promising candidate for diverse biomedical applications. In this article, we briefly review the progress on synthesis and biomedical application of magnetic vortex nanoparticles. In particular, magnetic vortex iron oxide nanodisks and nanorings are taken as typical examples to demonstrate the vortex domain structure and its magnetization reversal process. Benefits from their unique magnetic properties, these magnetic vortex nanoparticles have significantly improve the performance of MRI diagnostic and anti-tumor hyperthermia treatment as compared to currently available superparamagnetic iron oxides nanoparticles. Ultimately, the highly biocompatible magnetic vortex nanoparticles that we have introduced here can be a promising biomagnetic nanoplatform to construct a variety of high efficient nanoagent systems for biomedical application in the future.