Prostate malignancy represents the second leading cause
of cancer-specific
death among the male population worldwide. Herein, enhanced intracellular
magnetic fluid hyperthermia is appliedin vitroto
treat prostate cancer (PCa) cells with minimum invasiveness and toxicity
and highly specific targeting. We designed and optimized novel shape-anisotropic
magnetic core–shell–shell nanoparticles (i.e., trimagnetic
nanoparticles - TMNPs) with significant magnetothermal conversion
following an exchange coupling effect to an external alternating magnetic
field (AMF). The functional properties of the best candidate in terms
of heating efficiency (i.e., Fe3O4@Mn0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4@CoFe2O4) were exploited following surface decoration with PCa cell
membranes (CM) and/or LN1 cell-penetrating peptide (CPP). We demonstrated
that the combination of biomimetic dual CM-CPP targeting and AMF responsiveness
significantly induces caspase 9-mediated apoptosis of PCa cells. Furthermore,
a downregulation of the cell cycle progression markers and a decrease
of the migration rate in surviving cells were observed in response
to the TMNP-assisted magnetic hyperthermia, suggesting a reduction
in cancer cell aggressiveness.