Using chitosan-coated magnetite nanoparticles as a drug carrier for opioid delivery against breast cancer

Abstract

Over the past decades, opium derivatives have been discovered as new anticancer agents. In our study, Fe₃O₄ superparamagnetic nanoparticles (SPIONs) decorated with chitosan were loaded with papaverine or noscapine to surmount drug delivery-related obstacles. Modifying the magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) surface with polymeric materials such as chitosan prevents oxidation and provides a site for drug linkage, which renders them a great drug carrier. The obtained systems were characterized by DLS (20–40 nm were achieved for MNPs and drug- loaded MNPs), TEM (spherical with average size of 11–20 nm) FTIR, XRD, and VSM (71.3 − 42.8 emu/g). Contrary to noscapine, papaverine-MNPs attenuated 4T1 murine breast cancer cell proliferation (11.50 ± 1.74 µg/mL) effectively compared to the free drug (62.35 ± 2.88 µg/mL) while sparing L-929 fibroblast cells (138.14 ± 4.38 µg/mL). Furthermore, SPION and SPION-chitosan displayed no cytotoxic activity. Colony-formation assay confirmed the long-term cytotoxicity of nanostructures. Both developed formulations promoted ROS production accompanied by late apoptotic cell death. The biocompatible nanoparticle exerted an augmenting effect to deliver papaverine to metastatic breast cancer cells.

Keywords:

• Chitosan-coated SPIONs
• cytotoxicity
• noscapine
• papaverine
• apoptosis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported by the National Institute for Medical Research Development under Grant No. 971488 and 94-03-33-30218 from the Deputy of Research, Tehran University of Medical Science.