International Journal of Nanomedicine (Apr 2019)
Needle-shaped amphoteric calix[4]arene as a magnetic nanocarrier for simultaneous delivery of anticancer drugs to the breast cancer cells
Abstract
Mahdi Rahimi,1 Ramin Karimian,2 Ehsan Bahojb Noruzi,3 Khudaverdi Ganbarov,4 Mojtaba Zarei,1 Fadhil S Kamounah,5 Bahman Yousefi,1 Milad Bastami,6 Mehdi Yousefi,7 Hossein Samadi Kafil1 1Drug Applied Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran; 2Chemical Injuries Research Center, Systems biology and poisonings institute, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran; 3Faculty of Chemistry, Department of Inorganic Chemistry, University of Tabriz, Tabriz, Iran; 4Department of Microbiology, Baku State University, Baku, Republic of Azerbaijan; 5Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen. Denmark; 6Biotechnology Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran; 7Stem Cell Research Center, Faculty of Medicine, Tabriz University of Medical Sciences, Tabriz, Iran Background: Chemotherapy as an important tool for cancer treatment faces many obstacles such as multidrug resistance and adverse toxic effects on healthy tissues. Drug delivery systems has opened a new window to overcome these problems. There has been a strong interest development of new platform and system for delivof chemotherapeutic agents. Purpose: In the present study, a green synthesis method was chosen and performed for preparation of a novel amphoteric calix[4]arene (Calix) macrocycle with low toxicity to the human body. Materials and methods: The amphoteric Calix was coated on the surface of Fe3O4 magnetic nanoparticles and used as a magnetic nanocarrier for simultaneous delivery of two anticancer agents, doxorubicin and methotrexate, against MCF7 cancer cells. Several chemical characterizations were done for validation of prepared nanocarrier, and in vitro loading and release studies of drugs were performed with good encapsulation efficiency. Results: In vitro biological studies including hemolysis assay, erythrocytes sedimentation rate, red blood cells aggregation, cyto cellular internalization, and apoptosis evaluations were performed. Based on results, the developed nanocarrier has many advantages and capability for an efficient codelivery of DOX and MTX, which has a highly potent ability to kill cancer cells. Conclusion: All these results persuade us, this nanocarrier could be effectively used for cancer therapy of MCF7 breast cancer cells and is suitable for use in further animal studies in future investigations. Keywords: green synthesis, amphoteric calix[4]arene, drug delivery, combination therapy, MCF7 cells
