CoNi alloy nanoparticles for cancer theranostics: synthesis, physical characterization, in vitro and in vivo studies

Saman Sargazi,Francesco Baino,Milad Karamzadeh-Jahromi,Mahmood Barani,Mohammad Reza Hajinezhad,Mohammad Almasi-Kashi,Mahwash Mukhtar,Abbas Rahdar,Sima Alikhanzadeh-Arani

doi:10.1007/s00339-021-04917-8

Abstract

Nanomaterials are attracting increasing interest in many biomedical fields, including the fight against cancer. In this context, we successfully synthesized CoNi alloy nanoparticles (NPs) by a simple polyol process. The magnetic characteristics of the products were measured by vibration sample magnometry, which revealed that the samples have soft ferromagnetic behavior. The microstructure and morphology were inspected by X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy, respectively. Human cancer cells derived from the breast (MCF7) and oral cavity (C152) and normal cells derived from human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were treated with increasing concentrations of CoNi NPs, and their cytotoxic effect was measured via MTT and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage assays. We found that treatments by using 12.5 to 400 µg/mL of Co0.5Ni0.5, Co0.6Ni0.4, and Co0.4Ni0.6 NPs were associated with significant concentration-dependent toxicity toward such cell lines and profoundly enhanced LDH leakage following 48 h of exposure (P < 0.05 compared with untreated cells). Besides, a NP dose of 6.25 µg/mL did not affect the survival of HUVECs while leading to marked cell death in MCF7 and C152 cells. In vivo experiments in rats were done to investigate the biochemical and histopathological changes over three weeks, following intraperitoneal administration of Co0.5Ni0.5, Co0.6Ni0.4, and Co0.4Ni0.6 NPs (100 mg/kg). As compared with the controls, the exposure to NPs caused significant elevations in aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine, serum catalase activity, serum superoxide dismutase, and liver malondialdehyde levels. Also, rats treated with Co0.6Ni0.4 NPs showed more severe histopathological changes of the liver and kidney. Our findings represent an essential step toward developing theranostic nanoplatforms for selective cancer treatment.

Highlights

Nanostructured alloys are getting attention in different fields because of their tailorable size and ability to retain the individual properties of each metal, which enable their wider use
We have explored the concentration-dependent cytotoxicity of the CoNi alloy NPs with varying ratios of Co and Ni
Normal human cells were less affected during 48-h treatment. It might be a promising outcome, as we found a safe dose for the synthesized NPs to be employed in further biomedical applications without creating any harmful effects in humans

Summary

Introduction

Nanostructured alloys are getting attention in different fields because of their tailorable size and ability to retain the individual properties of each metal, which enable their wider use. The transition metal alloys have been widely explored for diagnostic and therapeutic purposes [1] because of their peculiar features, such as high saturation magnetization and good corrosion resistance [2]. CoNi alloys merge the fundamental characteristics of individual transition metals and, possess high magnetic properties, high thermal stability, and excellent wear resistance [4]. The nanoalloy systems have a high surface-to-volume ratio that can significantly affect the therapeutic or diagnostic functioning [5,6,7,8,9,10,11]. CoNi alloy nanoparticles (NPs) show suitable magnetic properties that can

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