Cytotoxicity and physicochemical characterization of iron–manganese-doped sulfated zirconia nanoparticles

Abstract

Mohamed Qasim Al-Fahdawi,1 Abdullah Rasedee,1,2 Mothanna Sadiq Al-Qubaisi,1 Fatah H Alhassan,3,4 Rozita Rosli,1 Mohamed Ezzat El Zowalaty,1,5 Seïf-Eddine Naadja,6 Thomas J Webster,7,8 Yun Hin Taufiq-Yap3,41Institute of Bioscience, 2Department of Veterinary Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, 3Catalysis Science and Technology Research Centre, Faculty of Science, 4Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, 5Biomedical Research Center, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar; 6Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; 7Department of Chemical Engineering, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA; 8Center of Excellence for Advanced Materials Research, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi ArabiaAbstract: Iron–manganese-doped sulfated zirconia nanoparticles with both Lewis and Brønsted acidic sites were prepared by a hydrothermal impregnation method followed by calcination at 650°C for 5 hours, and their cytotoxicity properties against cancer cell lines were determined. The characterization was carried out using X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Brauner–Emmett–Teller (BET) surface area measurements, X-ray fluorescence, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, zeta size potential, and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The cytotoxicity of iron–manganese-doped sulfated zirconia nanoparticles was determined using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assays against three human cancer cell lines (breast cancer MDA-MB231 cells, colon carcinoma HT29 cells, and hepatocellular carcinoma HepG2 cells) and two normal human cell lines (normal hepatocyte Chang cells and normal human umbilical vein endothelial cells [HUVECs]). The results suggest for the first time that iron–manganese-doped sulfated zirconia nanoparticles are cytotoxic to MDA-MB231 and HepG2 cancer cells but have less toxicity to HT29 and normal cells at concentrations from 7.8 µg/mL to 500 µg/mL. The morphology of the treated cells was also studied, and the results supported those from the cytotoxicity study in that the nanoparticle-treated HepG2 and MDA-MB231 cells had more dramatic changes in cell morphology than the HT29 cells. In this manner, this study provides the first evidence that iron–manganese-doped sulfated zirconia nanoparticles should be further studied for a wide range of cancer applications without detrimental effects on healthy cell functions.Keywords: nanopartices, Lewis and Brønsted acidic sites, anticancer applications, HT29 cells, transition metal oxide