Targeted therapeutic effect against the breast cancer cell line MCF-7 with a CuFeO/silica/cisplatin nanocomposite formulation.

The combination of magnetic nanoparticles with a porous silica is a composite that has attracted significant attention for potential multifunctional theranostic applications. In this study, 30 wt % CuFeO was impregnated into a matrix of monodispersed spherical hydrophilic silica (HYPS) nanoparticles through a simple dry impregnation technique. The chemotherapy drug cisplatin was loaded through electrostatic equilibrium adsorption over 24 h in normal saline solution. The presence of cubic spinel CuFeO on HYPS was confirmed through powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and diffuse reflectance UV-vis spectroscopy (DR UV-vis) analysis. The HYPS particles showed a surface area of 170 m/g, pore size of 8.3 nm and pore volume of 0.35 cm/g. The cisplatin/CuFeO/HYPS nanoformulation showed the accumulation of copper ferrite nanoparticles on the surface and in the pores of HYPS with a surface area of 45 m/g, pore size of 16 nm and pore volume of 0.18 cm/g. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) mapping analysis showed the presence of homogeneous silica particles with nanoclusters of copper ferrite distributed on the HYPS support. Vibrating sample magnetometry (VSM) analysis of CuFeO/HYPS showed paramagnetic behavior with a saturated magnetization value of 7.65 emu/g. DRS UV-vis analysis revealed the functionalization of cisplatin in tetrahedral and octahedral coordination in the CuFeO/HYPS composite. Compared to other supports such as mesocellular foam and silicalite, the release of cisplatin using the dialysis membrane technique was found to be superior when CuFeO/HYPS was applied as the support. An in vitro experiment was conducted to determine the potential of CuFeO/HYPS as an anticancer agent against the human breast cancer cell line MCF-7. The results show that the nanoparticle formulation can effectively target cancerous cells and could be an effective tumor imaging guide and drug delivery system.