Preparation and Biological Investigation of Iron Magnetic Nanoparticles Coated with Chitosan/Alginate Biopolymer (Fe3O4/Alg/CS)

Today, cancer is one of the health concerns in modern societies. The use of nanoparticles in diagnosis, drug delivery, imaging, and cancer treatment has received much attention in medical sciences.   The most important problem when treating cancer with chemotherapy is the lack of access to the central parts of the mass due to its less blood supply. This study aimed to investigate the toxicity of iron oxide nanoparticles coated with biopolymer chitosan/alginate on melanoma cancer cells (Hep G2 cells).

In this research, magnetic iron nanoparticles were coated with two biopolymers, namely chitosan and alginate. The size and surface morphology of these nanoparticles were checked by size measuring device and scanning electron microscope. Moreover, the binding of functional groups of chitosan and alginate to iron magnetic nanoparticles was checked by an infrared spectrometer. In this study, magnetic iron nanoparticles and modified nanoparticles were treated for 24 hours and the IC50 concentration of the compounds was estimated. The toxic properties of these nanoparticles were evaluated by MTT test and acridine orange/ethidium bromide staining.

After examining the photos of the scanning electron microscope and the size measuring device, the size of 50 nanometers was shown for the modified iron nanoparticles, and the shape of these nanoparticles was observed to be completely round and spherical.

The findings from the investigations of binanoparticles definitely confirmed the effective coating of nanoparticles by chitosan and alginate biopolymers. Furthermore, the findings showed that magnetic iron nanoparticles had higher toxic effects depending on the concentration and their IC50 concentration was about 134 µM/ml, while the coated nanoparticles had significantly lower toxic effects and did not have significant toxicity on Hep G2 cells at concentrations below 25 μM/ml. The coating of iron oxy nanoparticles significantly reduces their toxicity concentration.