An optimized field function scheme for nanoparticle guidance in magnetic drug targeting systems

Magnetic drug targeting is an approach to guide and concentrate magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) into the diseased target organ after being injected into blood vessels. Although many works for drug targeting have been conducted, there are few studies on delivering the nanoparticles to the target region. Drug delivery performance has not been addressed sufficiently or fully. In this paper, we investigate the effect of dominant factors to MNPs delivery performance. Then, an optimized field function scheme with a pulsed magnetic actuation is proposed to significantly improve the MNPs guidance performance. With a specific condition of blood vessel size, particle size, and applied magnetic field, the optimized parameters of the field function are selected through extensive simulation studies. We find out that the optimal negative and positive time for the magnetic pulsed field mainly depends on the exit time for particles to reach the bifurcation and the critical time as the maximum time for them to reach the vessels wall, respectively. With the chosen parameters, we show that ratios of correctly guided particles in a Y-channel are reached to 100%. In addition, to minimize the power consumption, a modified field function (MFF) scheme is introduced. The MFF includes a no-power time, called zero-time, between the positive and negative time. It is shown that with the proposed MFF, the energy consumption and the heating problem of the actuator system can be significantly reduced. Therefore, the proposed guidance scheme for MNPs can overcome the sticking issue and maximize the guidance performance as well as reducing the power consumption. It should be noted that the MFF can be easily implement by programmable DC power supplies connected to electromagnetic coils.