Vol.:(0123456789)
Research on Chemical Intermediates
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11164-020-04205-9
1 3
Investigation of controlled release properties
and anticancer effect of folic acid conjugated magnetic
core–shell nanoparticles as a dual responsive drug delivery
system on A‑549 and A‑431 cancer cell lines
Nahid Shahabadi
1,2
· Mahtab Razlansari
1
· Aref Khorshidi
1
· Hossein Zhaleh
3
Received: 18 April 2020 / Accepted: 26 June 2020
© Springer Nature B.V. 2020
Abstract
Epirubicin loaded on magnetite-coated calcium ferrite conjugated folic acid
(Fe
3
O
4
@CaFe
2
O
4
-FA@EPI) was synthesized and characterized using various tech-
niques like SEM, EDX, FT-IR, XRD, TGA, BET, and VSM. Also, the therapeu-
tic effects on A-549 and A-431 cancer cell lines and delivering ability of Fe
3
O
4
@
CaFe
2
O
4
-FA@EPI for potential use as a system of targeted drug delivery in cancer
therapy were investigated. The obtained results show that these hybrid nanoscale
particles have a large capacity of adsorption for EPI (19.4 wt.%) and desirable
drug loading performance (97.5%). The acetate buffer environment guides the drug
release to a higher amount (99%), in comparison with the phosphate-buffered saline
(28%). Also, the Fe
3
O
4
@CaFe
2
O
4
-FA@EPI nanohybrids in vitro cytotoxic activity
versus A-549 (null folate receptor) and A-431 (positive folate receptor) cancer cell
lines in group III (Fe
3
O
4
@EPI) investigations, show the higher cell cytotoxicity and
apoptosis in A-549 cells compared to A-431 (p < 0.05). Moreover, in A-431 cells,
the percent of cell cytotoxicity and cell death grew in the Fe
3
O
4
@CaFe
2
O
4
-FA@EPI
group in comparison with the A-549 cell line (p < 0.05). The results illustrated the
effects of Fe
3
O
4
@CaFe
2
O
4
-FA@EPI group on cytotoxicity and apoptosis of A-431
positive folate receptor cancer cells were almost two times greater than free EPI.
Furthermore, obtained findings show that the Fe
3
O
4
@CaFe
2
O
4
-FA@EPI provides
a specific growth inhibition of cancer cells through binding to receptors on the cell
membrane and intracellular uptake.
Keywords Calcium ferrite · Folic acid · Epirubicin · pH-responsive · Targeted drug
delivery
* Nahid Shahabadi
NahidShahabadi@yahoo.com
Extended author information available on the last page of the article