2021 saw a significant increase in nanomedicine research and, in particular, in the use of nanoparticles as transport carriers for the precise delivery of vaccines, therapeutics, adjuvants and enzymes to targeted sites in the human body as well as for diagnostic and direct thermal, magnetic or radioactive sensitisation applications.

This has opened up more applications for the use soft x-ray microscopy in validating the accuracy of nanoparticle delivery, using invitro models.

The paper below is a recent publication from a research group at the Hefei Soft-X-ray Beamline in China where soft x-ray microscopy was used to validate and visualise the intracellular location of biosynthesised, 30nm, Iron Sulfide (FeS) nanoparticles (NPs).

In this paper the Fenton properties of FeS NPs were used as a therapeutic to stimulate the production of potent oxidizing hydroxyl radicals, which were proven to be highly efficient at triggering cancer tumour cell apoptosis.

Regulating the synthesis rate and yield of bio-assembled FeS nanoparticles for efficient cancer therapy

Zheng D. et al. Nanoscale, 5th October 2021