After 3 h of incubation (600 rpm, 37 ºC), the ligand excess was removed by washing the MNPs with phosphate-buffered saline (PBS 1X) pH 7.4 in a centrifugal filter with a membrane of 100 kDa molecular weight limit (Merck Millipore, Darmstadt, Germany) four times. Finally, the MNPs functionalized with glucose were filtered using syringe filters of 0.22 µm in sterile conditions and stored at 4 °C for further use.