Synthesis and Investigation of the Curcumin-Loaded Magnetic Lipid Nanoparticles and Their Cytotoxicity Assessment on Human Breast Carcinoma Cell Line

Chemotherapy fails to eradicate cancer cells, mainly due to the lack of selective drug accumulation into the tumor site, which can affect healthy cells, as well. In this research, we studied the magnetite nanostructured lipid carriers (NLCs) for targeted delivery of curcumin into breast cancer cells. Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) were prepared using coprecipitation method by mixing FeCl2 and FeCl3 in a suitable ratio in alkaline media. The resultant ferrofluid was very stable and possessed high magnetic properties. To prepare SPIONs containing NLCs (NLC-SPIONs), cetyl palmitate and cod-liver oil, Tween 80 and span60 were used as solid lipid, liquid lipid, surfactant, and co-surfactant, respectively. Curcumin as an anticancer drug was loaded into NLC-SPIONs (CUR-NLC-SPIONs) and its characteristics, including particle size, zeta potential, polydispersity index (PDI), drug entrapment efficacy, drug-loading capacity, and thermal stability were evaluated. The results showed that CUR-NLC-SPIONs had a mean particle size of 166.7 ± 14.20 nm, mean zeta potential of -27.6 ± 3.83 mv, and PDI of 0.24 ± 0.14. Encapsulation efficiency for all prepared nanoparticles (NPs) was 99.95 ± 0.015% and drug-loading capacity was 3.76 ± 0.005%. Morphological studies were carried out by transmission electron microscopy (TEM) indicating spherical morphology of the NPs. 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay measurements on cell viability proved that the synthesized CUR-NLC-SPIONs possess a better cytotoxic activity against human breast cancer cells compared with free curcumin. This new drug delivery system, which benefits from superparamagnetic properties may serve as a suitable platform for developing new biocompatible drug carriers and with a potential to use in targeted cancer therapy.