In vivo biodistribution, antioxidant and hemolysis tendency of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles - Potential anticancer agents

Ferromagnetic and superparamagnetic oxide nanoparticles are of particular attention because of their possible use in various fields ranging from bio-nanotechnology to spintronics. Detailed magnetic, dielectric and impedance investigations are crucial for the above-mentioned applications. This study deals with the exploration of various iron oxide phases under as-synthesized conditions by sol-gel method. pH of the sols is varied in the range of 1 to 11. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicate amorphous behavior for nanoparticles synthesized using pH 1 and 3. Nanoparticles synthesized using pH 2 and 4-6 exhibit hematite phase of iron oxide. Whereas structural transition to maghemite phase is observed for pH 7-8. Nanoparticles synthe-sized using high pH values, i.e. 9-11, exhibit structural transition towards magnetite phase of iron oxide. Hematite nanoparticles exhibit superparamagnetic and ferromagnetic hysteresis curves with saturation magnetization of -24 emu/g and -13-17 emu/g at pH 2 and pH 4-6, respectively. Maghemite nanoparticles exhibit superparamagnetic (pH 7) and ferromagnetic (pH 8) response with saturation magnetization of -69 and -42 emu/g, respectively. Fe3O4 nanoparticles exhibit superparamagnetic (pH 9-10) and ferromagnetic (pH 11) behavior with saturation magnetization of -88, 87 and 52 emu/g, respectively. High grain boundary resistance contributed towards high dielectric constant of -99, 109 and 154 (log f = 5.0) at pH 2, 7 and 9. Detailed impedance values indicate dominant role of grain boundaries in the conductivity of iron oxide nanoparticles. Super-paramagnetic iron oxide (pH 9) exhibits strong antioxidant activity along with a very weak hemo- lytic response. The findings of cell lysis reveal that synthesized nanoparticles have a potential to combat dangerous cancer cells. Drug efficacy results show that after 120 min the encapsulation effi-cacy reaches a peak of 83 % using curcumin, a naturally existing drug. In vivo biodistribution of nanoparticles was studied in Rabbit model. Synthesized nanoparticles are labelled using Technetium-99 m. Whereas, labeling efficacy and stability was examined using =nstant thin layer chromatography (ITLC) process. In vitro and in vivo results suggest potential anti-cancer applica-tions of as-synthesized superparamagnetic nanoparticles.(c) 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

This study investigates the structures and magnetic properties of various iron oxide nanoparticles synthesized with different pH values using the sol-gel method. The results demonstrate the potential applications of these nanoparticles in fields such as bio-nanotechnology and spintronics.