Synthesis of polymer coated Co0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanoparticles and their cytotoxicity on human carcinoma cells

Over recent decades, the application of magnetic nanoparticles has been broadly investigated with their advance applications in the areas of biotechnology, medicinal drug delivery, magnetic fluid hyperthermia, and magnetic... [ view full abstract ]

Over recent decades, the application of magnetic nanoparticles has been broadly investigated with their advance applications in the areas of biotechnology, medicinal drug delivery, magnetic fluid hyperthermia, and magnetic resonance imaging. Spinel ferrite nanoparticles are of importance because of their well-known unique optical, electronic and magnetic properties. Spinel ferrite nanoparticles have no preferred direction of magnetization, good saturation magnetization and high permeability. Being magnetically soft; they can easily magnetized and demagnetized, and electrically insulating. For this reason, in this study, cobalt zinc ferrite (Co0.5 Zn0.5 Fe2O4) magnetic nanoparticles (CZF) were used for further investigation. However, there are no data about biological activity of CZF, including their cellular uptake, toxicity, effects on cell proliferation, phenotype and functional activity. Therefore, these aspects remain a subject of particular interest. Multifunctional CZF were synthesized by sol gel method with high colloidal stability having room temperature ferromagnetism. The synthesis method is cost-effective, easy to scale up and reproducible. For biological applications CZF were polymer coated with amphiphilic polymer. The amphiphilic polymer can be functionalized with organic, organo-metallic or anticancer drug molecules; for this linkage the molecules need to bear a free amino group. Via the amino group these molecules are then directly attached to the maleic anhydride rings of the amphiphilic polymer. In this study 1% anhydride rings of amphiphilic polymer were reacted with fluorescent dye (cresyl violet perchlorate) used as model system for anti-cancer drug loaded polymer shell. The amount of functional molecule can be varied up to 25% of the anhydride rings, which provides greater affinity of drug loading in polymer shell. CFZ were further characterized by XRD, FTIR, UV-Vis spectroscopy and gel electrophoresis. The in vitro cytotoxicity of CZF was examined via the MTT assay on HepG2 (Liver Cancer cells). Concisely, 104 cells per well were seeded in to 96-well plates and exposed to different concentrations of CFZ for 24 h. The CFZ induce significant death of the carcinoma cells (HepG2). Stimulatingly, this seems to be a noteworthy improvement towards the ability of surface functionalized multifunctional CZF as carriers for drugs for anti-cancer therapy.