Magnetic-Based Contact and Non-Contact Manipulation of Cell Mockups and Biological MCF-7 Cells

The use of wireless magnetic control to transport and deliver chemotherapeutic agents selectively to tumor cells has become a promising strategy to mitigate the negative side effects associated with conventional treatment. It is necessary to manipulate and penetrate biological cells using magnetic agent to achieve this targeted drug delivery. Contact and non-contact micromanipulation of cell mockups and biological cells (human astrocytoma cell line U-373 MG and human breast adenocarcinoma cell line MCF-7) is achieved using magnetic agents (paramagnetic microparticles and iron oxide nanoparticles). The contact manipulation is accomplished under the influence of the controlled magnetic field gradients exerted on the magnetic agent, whereas the non-contact manipulation is done under the influence of the magnetic field and pressure gradients exerted on the agent and biological cells, respectively. We develop a magnetic-based teleoperation system that allows us to control the motion of the magnetic agents using microscopic feedback. This teleoperation is used to manipulate cell mockups toward reference positions in the presence and absence of contact between the cells and the magnetic agents. In addition, we demonstrate that iron oxide nanoparticles selectively move toward an MCF-7 cell and penetrate its walls without permanently damaging the membrane. This penetration is achieved in 28 seconds using controlled external magnetic fields and under microscopic vision guidance. The precise non-contact manipulation of biological cells using microparticles provides broad possibilities in targeted therapy and biomedical applications that require successful releases and selective penetration of cells without causing a permanent damage to the membrane.