Original Articles
S. A. Elmasry, M. A. Elgawish,
Abstract
Fe3O4 nanoparticles (MNPs) have great advantages in cancer applications due to their unique structure and strong magnetic properties. In this study, the formulated quercetin (Q) loaded MNPs were mediated by Aspergillus oryazae. FeSO4 used as a substrate to prepare MNPs in a single step, co-friendly biological method. UV– Visible spectrophotometer, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared analysis and Transmission electron microscopy were used to study the morphology and structure of the formulated MNPs as well as QMNPs. The cytotoxicity of the formulated NPs was examined against different human cancer cells. The enhancement of the most sensitive cancer cells in response to radiation therapy (RT) by QMNPs was demonstrated via several cytotoxicity assays including cell survival, intracellular ROS levels, early DNA damage and cell apoptosis in sub G1 phase and cell cycle distribution were measured with MTT assay, Electron Spin Resonance (ESR) Spectroscopy, flow cytometry analysis, respectively to evaluate the biocompatibility of the formulated the nano-structure. The results revealed that Q was loaded on the surface of the prepared MNPs to obtain QMNPs suggesting that ferric ions are located in globular nanoparticles chelated by quercetin. The formulated NPs were amorphous with size ranging from 40 to 60 nm. Biological investigations displayed that QMNPs was concentration dependent and cell specific cytotoxicity with IC50 values of 11nM/ml, 75.4 nM/ml and 104 nM /ml for MCF-7, HepG2 and A459 cell lines respectively. QMNPs also, appeared to be a potent enhancer for radiation treatment as evidenced by the increased radiosensitivity of MCF-7 cells in comparison with RT alone.