Breast cancer drug delivery by novel drug-loaded chitosan-coated magnetic nanoparticles

A Taherian,S Rouhani,N Esfandiari

doi:10.1186/s12645-021-00086-8

Abstract

BackgroundBreast cancer is one of the most challenging cancers among women which is considered one of the most lethal cancers to this date. From the time that cancer has been discovered, finding the best therapeutic method is still an ongoing process. As a novel therapeutic method, nanomedicine has brought a vast number of materials that could versatilely be used as a drug carrier. The purpose of this study is to develop a novel black pomegranate peel extract loaded with chitosan-coated magnetic nanoparticles to treat breast cancer cells.ResultsThe morphology and size distribution of the nanoparticles studied by dynamic light scattering, atomic force microscopy, scanning, and transitional electron microscopy showed the spherical shape of the nanoparticles and their promising size range. Studies by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, vibrating sample magnetometer, and zeta sizer confirmed the synthesis, substantial crystallinity, magnetic potential of the nanoparticles, and their satisfactory stability. The DPPH assay revealed that the obtained black pomegranate peel extract has 60% free radical scavenging activity. The cytotoxicity studies by MTT and LDH assay carried out on NIH/3T3, MBA-MB-231, and 4T1 cells confirmed that the magnetic nanoparticles had no significant cytotoxicity on the cells. However, the drug-loaded nanoparticles could significantly eradicate cancerous cells which had more efficiency comparing to free drug. Furthermore, free drug and drug-loaded nanoparticles had no toxic effect on normal cells.ConclusionOwing to the results achieved from this study, the novel drug-loaded nanoparticles are compatible to be used for breast cancer treatment and could potentially be used for further in vivo studies.

Highlights

Breast cancer is one of the most challenging cancers among women which is considered one of the most lethal cancers to this date
Morphology and size distribution of the nanoparticles The results achieved from dynamic light scattering (DLS) analysis (Fig. 2a) showed that the uncoated magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) have a mean size of 30.3 ± 7.1 nm
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images have revealed that the synthesized MNPs were moderately smooth and spherical in shape with an average size of 19.4 ± 2.7 nm (Fig. 2e, f )

Summary

Introduction

Breast cancer is one of the most challenging cancers among women which is considered one of the most lethal cancers to this date. The purpose of this study is to develop a novel black pomegranate peel extract loaded with chitosan-coated magnetic nanoparticles to treat breast cancer cells. A scope of abnormalities in cell proliferation that have caused considerable concern over public health. What makes cancer the major public health issue could potentially be a phenomenon called “metastasis”, in which the cancerous cells achieve the Taherian et al Cancer Nano (2021) 12:15 capability to migrate distant regions of the body (Lee et al 2017; Gurunathan et al 2018; Senapati et al 2018; Esfandiari and Taherian 2019). According to the latest reports of the World Health Organization (WHO), cancer has retained its place as a leading cause of death in most countries (Wild et al 2020). Breast cancer is one of the frequently diagnosed and the leading causes of death among women (Bray et al 2018). Due to the reports that have been gathered from the American Cancer Society (ACS) since 2015, breast cancer incidence and death due to breast cancer estimations have increased annually in the United States (Siegel et al 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)

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