Targeted therapeutic effect against the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 with a CuFe2O4/silica/cisplatin nanocomposite formulation

B Rabindran Jermy; Vijaya Ravinayagam; Widyan A Alamoudi; Dana Almohazey; Hatim Dafalla; Lina Hussain Allehaibi; Abdulhadi Baykal; Muhammet S Toprak; Thirunavukkarasu Somanathan

doi:10.3762/bjnano.10.214

Targeted therapeutic effect against the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 with a CuFe₂O₄/silica/cisplatin nanocomposite formulation

Beilstein J Nanotechnol. 2019 Nov 12:10:2217-2228. doi: 10.3762/bjnano.10.214. eCollection 2019.

Authors

B Rabindran Jermy¹, Vijaya Ravinayagam², Widyan A Alamoudi³, Dana Almohazey⁴, Hatim Dafalla⁵, Lina Hussain Allehaibi⁶, Abdulhadi Baykal¹, Muhammet S Toprak⁷, Thirunavukkarasu Somanathan⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Nano-Medicine Research, Institute for Research and Medical Consultations, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, 31441 Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
² Deanship of Scientific Research & Department of Nano-Medicine Research, Institute for Research and Medical Consultations, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, 31441 Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
³ Department of Neuroscience Research, Institute for Research and Medical Consultations, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, 31441 Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Stem Cell Research, Institute for Research and Medical Consultations, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, P.O. Box 1982, 31441 Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ College of Engineering Research (CER), King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals, 31261 Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ PharmD, College of Clinical Pharmacy, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Dammam, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Department of Materials and Nano Physics, KTH-Royal Institute of Technology, 16440 Stockholm, Sweden.
⁸ Department of Chemistry, School of Basic Sciences, Vels Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies (VISTAS), Chennai 600117, India.

Abstract

The combination of magnetic nanoparticles with a porous silica is a composite that has attracted significant attention for potential multifunctional theranostic applications. In this study, 30 wt % CuFe₂O₄ was impregnated into a matrix of monodispersed spherical hydrophilic silica (HYPS) nanoparticles through a simple dry impregnation technique. The chemotherapy drug cisplatin was loaded through electrostatic equilibrium adsorption over 24 h in normal saline solution. The presence of cubic spinel CuFe₂O₄ on HYPS was confirmed through powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy (DR UV-vis) analysis. The HYPS particles showed a surface area of 170 m²/g, pore size of 8.3 nm and pore volume of 0.35 cm³/g. The cisplatin/CuFe₂O₄/HYPS nanoformulation showed the accumulation of copper ferrite nanoparticles on the surface and in the pores of HYPS with a surface area of 45 m²/g, pore size of 16 nm and pore volume of 0.18 cm³/g. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) mapping analysis showed the presence of homogeneous silica particles with nanoclusters of copper ferrite distributed on the HYPS support. Vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) analysis of CuFe₂O₄/HYPS showed paramagnetic behavior with a saturated magnetization value of 7.65 emu/g. DRS UV-vis analysis revealed the functionalization of cisplatin in tetrahedral and octahedral coordination in the CuFe₂O₄/HYPS composite. Compared to other supports such as mesocellular foam and silicalite, the release of cisplatin using the dialysis membrane technique was found to be superior when CuFe₂O₄/HYPS was applied as the support. An in vitro experiment was conducted to determine the potential of CuFe₂O₄/HYPS as an anticancer agent against the human breast cancer cell line MCF-7. The results show that the nanoparticle formulation can effectively target cancerous cells and could be an effective tumor imaging guide and drug delivery system.

Keywords: anticancer; cisplatin; copper ferrite; drug delivery; multifunctional; nanomedicine; nanotherapeutics; spherical silica; tumour therapy.