Manganese-Doped Magnetic Nanoclusters for Hyperthermia and Photothermal Glioblastoma Therapy

The development of nanostructures with complementary functionalities has emerged as a prerequisite for more efficient preclinical nanoparticle-mediated thermo-therapeutic research. Here, we report the bimodal application of manganese doped-iron oxide nanoclusters for photothermal and magnetic hyperthermia-mediated glioblastoma therapy. Besides the combinatorial effect, we have also explored the comparative effects of the single-mode therapies when seldom used in terms of cell viability, oxidative stress production, reduction in mitochondrial membrane potential, cytoskeletal damage, and morphological alterations. In all aspects, exposure to magnetic hyperthermia was shown to have a higher therapeutic effect than the photothermal therapy when used alone. However, it is ultimately the consequence of bimodal therapy application that results in significant death of rat glioma C6 cells. Excitation of cells with a laser was observed to create oxidative stress in the cellular environment which enhanced the efficiency of magnetic hyperthermia, resulting in a remarkable anticancer effect mediated by ROS-dependent apoptosis via the mitochondrial pathway.