The physical and chemical properties of the nanoparticles influence their pharmacokinetics and ability to accumulate in
tumors. In this paper we report a facile method to conjugate
folic acid molecule to iron oxide nanoparticles to increase the specific uptake of these nanoparticles by the
tumor, which will be useful in targeted imaging of the
tumor. The iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by alkaline co precipitation method and were surface modified with dextranto make them stable. The
folic acid is conjugated to the
dextran modified iron oxide nanoparticles by reductive amination process after the oxidation of the
dextran with
periodate. The synthesized
folic acid conjugated nanoparticles were characterized for size, phase, morphology and magnetization by using various physicochemical characterization techniques such as transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, vibrating sample magnetometry, dynamic light scattering and zetasizer etc. The quantification of the generated carbonyl groups and
folic acid conjugated to the surface of the magnetic nanoparticles was done by colorimetric estimations using UV-Visible spectroscopy. The in vitro MR studies were carried out over a range of concentrations and showed significant shortening of the transverse relaxation rate, showing the ability of the
nanoconjugate to act as an efficient probe for MR imaging. The biodistribution studies and the scintigraphy done by radiolabeling the
nanoconjugate with 99mTc show the enhanced uptake at the
tumor site showing its enhanced specificity.