Cytotoxic and Apoptotic Effects of Three Types of Silver-Iron Oxide Binary Hybrid Nanoparticles

Multifunctional nanostructures have received great deal of attention in biomedical area due to their capabilities in the development of new therapeutic and diagnostic agents. Silver and iron oxide nanoparticles, owing to their specific characteristics, are considered to develop bifunctional hybrid nanoparticles for magnetic delivery of silver nanoparticles as cytotoxic agent toward cancer cells.

This study was designed to explore the in-vitro cytotoxic and apoptotic activities of three different silver-iron oxide binary hybrid nanoparticles on human liver hepatocellular carcinoma cell line.

Three different silver-iron oxide binary hybrid nanoparticles were synthesized and characterized through the designed procedures. Apoptosis induction was investigated through flow cytometry and the influence on bax gene expression level was analyzed using quantitative real time polymerase chain reaction.

All the three types of silver-iron oxide hybrid nanoparticles (possessing different characteristics) exhibited cytotoxic and apoptotic effects. Furthermore, the up regulation of bax gene expression suggested the involvement of the intrinsic pathway of apoptosis. Some of the transcription regulators which could interact with bax gene promoter were analyzed and found out to be mostly contributed in the stress responses. Among the test nanoparticles, the strongest cytotoxic and apoptotic effect was induced by the binary hybrid nanoparticle which was synthesized with glucose as reducing agent; suggesting that the biological activity was affected by different characteristics of the designed nanoparticles.

Combined properties of silver and magnetic nanoparticles in the binary hybrid nanoparticles, provide a great potential to be exploited in the cancer therapy, where the combination of cytotoxicity and magnetic targeting is desired.