Folic Acid-Adorned Curcumin-Loaded Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for Cervical Cancer

Cancer is a deadly disease that has long plagued humans and has become more prevalent in recent years. The common treatment modalities for this disease have always faced many problems and complications, and this has led to the discovery of strategies for cancer diagnosis and treatment. The use of magnetic nanoparticles in the past two decades has had a significant impact on this. One of the objectives of the present study is to introduce the special properties of these nanoparticles and how they are structured to load and transport drugs to tumors. In this study, iron oxide (Fe₃O₄) nanoparticles with 6 nm sizes were coated with hyperbranched polyglycerol (HPG) and folic acid (FA). The functionalized nanoparticles (10-20 nm) were less likely to aggregate compared to non-functionalized nanoparticles. HPG@Fe₃O₄ and FA@HPG@Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles were compared in drug loading procedures with curcumin. HPG@Fe₃O₄ and FA@HPG@Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles' maximal drug-loading capacities were determined to be 82 and 88%, respectively. HeLa cells and mouse L929 fibroblasts treated with nanoparticles took up more FA@HPG@Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles than HPG@Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles. The FA@HPG@Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles produced in the current investigation have potential as anticancer drug delivery systems. For the purpose of diagnosis, incubation of HeLa cells with nanoparticles decreased MRI signal enhancement's percentage and the largest alteration was observed after incubation with FA@HPG@Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles.