Studies on biomedical applications of nanoparticles are growing with a rapid pace. In medicine, nanoparticles may be the solution for multi-drug-resistance which is still a major drawback in chemotherapy of cancer. In the present study, we investigated the potential cytotoxic effect of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) and silver ions (Ag(+)) in both parent and tamoxifen-resistant T47D cells in presence and absence of tamoxifen. Ag NPs were synthesized (< 28 nm) and MTT assay was carried out. The associated IC(50) values were found to be: 6.31 µg/ml for Ag NPs/parent cells, 37.06 µg/ml for Ag NPs/tamoxifen-resistant cells, 33.06 µg/ml for Ag(+)/parent cells and 10.10 µg/ml for Ag(+)/resistant cells. As a separate experiment, the effect of subinhibitory concentrations of Ag NPs and Ag(+) on the proliferation of tamoxifen-resistant cells was evaluated at non-toxic concentrations of tamoxifen. Our results suggested that in non-cytotoxic concentrations of silver nanomaterials and tamoxifen, the combinations of Ag(+)-tamoxifen and Ag NPs-tamoxifen are still cytotoxic. This finding may be of great potential benefit in chemotherapy of breast cancer; since much lower doses of tamoxifen may be needed to produce the same cytotoxic effect and side effects will be reduced.
Keywords: Breast neoplasms; Chemotherapy; Cytotoxicity; Nanoparticles; Tamoxifen.