Cytotoxic effect of iron oxide nanoparticles functionalized with glucose and conjugated with Coumarin (Fe3O4@Glu-Coumarin NPs) on liver cancer, HepG2, cell line

Abstract

Liver cancer is a severe and frequent disease that is the 3rd leading cause of cancer related-death, worldwide. The use of magnetic nanoparticles in cancer treatment has gained interest. This work aimed to synthesize novel iron oxide nanoparticles functionalized with Glucose and conjugated with Coumarin (Fe3O4@Glu-Coumarin NPs) and characterize their anticancer effects on liver cancer cells. Physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles (NPs) were characterized by Fourier-Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Zeta potential, Thermogravimetric/ Derivative Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA/DTG), and Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) analyses, which confirmed the synthesis, purity, magnetic property, and stability of the NPs. The NPs were in a size range of 29–43 nm and their zeta potential and hydrodynamic size were −15 mV and 290 nm, respectively. The antiproliferative effect of Fe3O4@Glu-Coumarin NPs on HepG2 (liver cancer cell line) and THLE2 (normal hepatocyte cell line) was studied by the MTT assay. Further, apoptosis induction in NPs treated cells was evaluated by flow cytometry and Hoechst staining. According to the results, Fe3O4@Glu-Coumarin NPs had considerably higher cytotoxicity for liver cancer cells than for normal human cells and the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) was 121 and 273 µg/mL, respectively. In addition, treating THLE2 cells with Fe3O4@Glu-Coumarin NPs at their IC50 concentration significantly increased the frequency of cell apoptosis, compared with the untreated cells and resulted in the appearance of apoptotic nuclear characteristics. In our opinion, the anticancer feature of Fe3O4@Glu-Coumarin NPs is mainly related to the coumarin molecule and, the synthesized NPs could be used for drug delivery approaches after further study.