Advanced applications of spinel ferrite nanoparticles in medicine: Magnetic hyperthermia, magnetic resonance imaging and targeted ‎drug delivery

Spinel ferrites nanoparticles are among the most important magnetic materials and their applications in ‎different areas have increased significantly in the last two decades. The idea of using ferrites ‎nanoparticles in medical applications, caused attraction of attention of researchers in worldwide to this field ‎and increase number of studies on the subject. The increase of the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast is one ‎of the most important medical applications of spinel ferrite nanoparticles. The imaging results of ‎live organisms show that the spinel ferrite nanoparticles can increase the contrast of images of ‎cancerous cells and therefore help tumors diagnosis. Magnetic hyperthermia is another ‎application of spinel ferrite nanoparticles, in which several factors affect the specific adsorption ‎rate and efficiency of the method. However, this method has not yet been applied to human kind, ‎and it is being studied in laboratories on animals like mouse etc. Targeted drug delivery is the ‎third application of spinel ferrite nanoparticles in the field of medicine. This method is one of the ‎most advanced treatment routes. In this method, several parameters must be considered to ‎achieve the best results. Considering the importance of health and treatment, the main purpose of ‎this review is to give the latest results of studies on the three mentioned methods on using the ‎spinel ferrite nanoparticles for medical purposes‎.