predicted not only from its properties but also by the mechanism by which MNPs

operate that may interfere with the biological activities (Malhotra et al. 2020).

Therefore, it is imperative to understand the toxic traits associated with MNPs.

The toxicity of MNPs depends on the number of parameters including, chemical,

physical, and structural properties of MNPs, amount of dose and intended usage of

MNPs (Markides et al. 2012). Some studies have shown that appraisal of MNP

in vivo studies can lead to some toxic effects such as oxidative stress, mutagenicity,

genotoxicity, mitochondrial damage, and vascular embolism. This may arise due to

the agglomeration of MNPs. Rare side effects include headache, back pain, hypo-

tension, and urticaria (Zamay et al. 2020). Bourrinet et al. assessed the toxicity of

MNPs via performing experiments on animal models and concluded that a concen-

tration of 100 mg Fe/kg did not cause any toxic effects. Moreover, when MNPs

were employed for diagnostic purposes in the range of 20–50 mg of Fe, it did not

cause any toxic effects in humans (Meola et al. 2019; Bourrinet et al. 2006).

However, suitable approaches could be developed to make MNPs biocompatible

via surface passivation with natural polymers, amino acids, aptamers, etc. in order to

minimize the toxicity to obtain a reasonable benefit-to-risk ratio.

24.8

Conclusion

The present study reviewed the importance of MNPs for the advancement of

technology in the field of biomedical applications. MNPs are exponentially gaining

popularity for clinical diagnosis and treatment using biosensing, targeted drug

Fig. 24.5 Employment of HPMC/Fe3O4 for the magnetic hyperthermia ablation of tumors.

(Reproduced with permission from Wang et al. (2017))

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