Nanoparticles (e.g., graphene oxide, graphene oxide-Fe3O4 nanocomposite or hexagonal boron nitride) loaded with anti-cancer drugs and targeted at cancerous cells allowed researchers to determine the most effective in vitro conditions for anticancer treatment. For this reason, the main propose of the present study was to determine the effect of graphene oxide (GO) with iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles (GO-Fe3O4) covalently (c-GO-Fe3O4-HCPT) and non-covalently (nc-GO-Fe3O4-HCPT) conjugated with hydroxycamptothecin (HCPT) in the presence of a rotating magnetic field (RMF) on relative cell viability using the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. The obtained GO-Fe3O4 nanocomposites demonstrated the uniform coverage of the graphene flakes with the nanospheres, with the thickness of the flakes estimated as ca. 1.2 nm. The XRD pattern of GO-Fe3O4 indicates that the crystal structure of the magnetite remained stable during the functionalization with HCPT that was confirmed with FTIR spectra. After 24 h, approx. 49% and 34% of the anti-cancer drug was released from nc-GO-Fe3O4-HCPT and c-GO-Fe3O4-HCPT, respectively. The stronger bonds in the c-GO-Fe3O4-HCPT resulted in a slower release of a smaller drug amount from the nanocomposite. The combined impact of the novel nanocomposites and a rotating magnetic field on MCF-7 cells was revealed and the efficiency of this novel approach has been confirmed. However, MCF-7 cells were more significantly affected by nc-GO-Fe3O4-HCPT. In the present study, it was found that the concentration of nc-GO-Fe3O4-HCPT and a RMF has the highest statistically significant influence on MCF-7 cell viability. The obtained novel nanocomposites and rotating magnetic field were found to affect the MCF-7 cells in a dose-dependent manner. The presented results may have potential clinical applications, but still, more in-depth analyses need to be performed.
Keywords: MCF-7 cell culture; biomedical application; cell viability; drug delivery strategies; graphene oxide-Fe3O4 nanocomposite; rotating magnetic field (RMF).