Magnetic carboxymethyl cellulose/silk fibroin hydrogel embedded with halloysite nanotubes as a biocompatible nanobiocomposite with hyperthermia application

Abstract

A novel and high potent magnetic nanobiocomposite was prepared based on Carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and epichlorohydrin (ECH) cross-linker interactions to form a three-dimensional cross-linked CMC hydrogel followed by silk fibroin (SF) and halloysite nanotubes (HNTs) modifications and further in situ Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) formation. Different analytical techniques like FT-IR, EDX, FE-SEM, XRD, TGA, and VSM were used to characterize the structure of the prepared nanobiocomposite. The spherical morphology of Fe3O4 MNPs and tubular HNTs were presented in the FE-SEM images. In biological tests, since the hemolysis percent was even less than the negative control, the CMC hydrogel/SF/HNTs/Fe3O4 nanobiocomposite was fully hemocompatible. This nanobiocomposite was non-toxic toward HEK293T normal cell line. In addition, the proliferation rate and viability percentage reduction of BT549 cancer cells confirmed the anticancer property of the nanobiocomposite against breast cancer cell lines. This magnetic nanocomposite was applied in hyperthermia cancer therapy, and the maximum specific absorption rate (SAR, 67 W/g) was obtained at the concentration of 1 mg/mL under the magnetic frequency of 400 kHz.