preparation and characterization of noscapine loaded superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles for drug delivery in breast cancer cells

preparation and characterization of noscapine loaded superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles for drug delivery in breast cancer cells
Fateme Heidari,¹ Shima Aliebrahimi,² Amir Amani ,³ Vahide Montazeri,⁴ Shiva Sabzandam ,⁵ Seyed Nasser Ostad ,^6,*
1. School of Medicine, Tehran Medical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
2. Department of Medical Education, Virtual University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
3. Department of Medical Nanotechnology, School of Advanced Technologies in Medicine, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
4. Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
6. Department of Toxicology and Pharmacology, Faculty of Pharmacy, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Introduction: Despite encouraging progress in cancer diagnosis and therapeutic strategies, breast cancer remains the primary cause of cancer-related death among females (1). Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) are pharmaceutically attractive drug carriers due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability, facility tunable, and feasibility to synthesize (2,3). This study aimed to deliver noscapine (an opium alkaloid) to metastatic breast cancer cells by the aid of SPIONs.
Methods: Fe3O4 SPIONs were first prepared by the co-precipitation method. The SPION-chitosan–drug nanoparticles were prepared by the ionic gelation technique. XRD, FTIR, DLS, TEM, and spectrophotometry were used to characterize the drug system. MTT assay was used to assess the cytotoxicity on 4T1 triple-negative breast cancer cell.
Results: The complex with the highest drug loading rate of about 96% and an average particle size of 419 and 20 nm (DLS and TEM, respectively) was considered for further evaluation. The XRD results were indicated typical diffraction patterns of magnetite nanoparticles. Our result showed that noscapine and noscapine-magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) abolished 4T1 proliferation dose-dependently with an IC50 value of 127.7 and 697.8 µg/mL respectively, whereas, SPION and SPION-chitosan were found to have no cytotoxicity.
Conclusion: Contrary to papaveine-MNP, the other opium alkaloid, that has prepared by the aforementioned method and demonstrated a potent inhibitory activity (IC50: 11.5 vs 62.4 µg/mL for papverine), noscapine-MNP was not efficient for drug delivery.
Keywords: Magnetic nanoparticle, Noscapine, Papaverine, Breast cancer, Drug delivery