Hyperthermia of breast cancer tumor using graphene oxide-cobalt ferrite magnetic nanoparticles in mice

Abstract

Herein, the graphene oxide (GO)/cobalt ferrite nanoparticles were used to apply the heat treatment on the breast cancer cell line of MCF7. The synthesized nanoparticles were evaluated before in vitro and in vivo studies, using transmission electron microscopy (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), thermal property and relaxivity measurement. The nanoparticles showed a diameter of 5 nm with the ferrimagnetic property. Also, the nanoparticles were well distributed on the GO nanosheets. The related peaks of cobalt ferrite nanoparticles were approved by using XRD and XPS assays. During the in vitro investigations, IC50 with the cell survival of 58% was obtained after 72 h treatment with the nanoparticles. However, the cell viability value was decreased to 30% after applying the hyperthermia process. Moreover, the in vivo studies were performed using BALB/c mice and the results indicated the smaller size of the tumor with the concentrations of 0.001 and 0.002 gr/ml and the respective magnetic frequencies of 400 and 250 kHz for 10 min after 27 days. The magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies also confirmed the presence of the nanoparticles not only within the tumor, but also in other tissues. The molecular gene expression of the treated tumor showed the higher expression of apoptotic genes. On the other hand, the hematoxylin and eosin (H&E) staining approved that the tumor cytoskeleton was ruined specially by the nanoparticle concentration of 0.002 gr/ml at the frequency of 250 and 350 kHz. As a whole, the findings could recommend a useful therapeutic strategy of the hyperthermia by using the magnetic nanoparticles.