Porous α-Fe₂O₃ nanocarriers: Biosynthesis and in vitro gene delivery applications

Non-viral gene delivery is a new therapeutic in the treating genetic disorders. The most important challenge in nonviral gene transformation is the immunogenicity of carriers. Nowadays, The immunogenicity of nanocarriers as a deliverer of nucleic acid molecules has received significant attention. In this research, hematite green nanocarriers were prepared in one step with rosemary extract. Synthetic nanocarriers were investigated by using XRD (X-ray diffraction analysis), FESEM-EDX (field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy), HR-TEM (high-resolution transmission electron microscopy), VSM (value stream mapping), TGA- DTG (thermal gravimetric analysis-differential thermal analysis), FT-IR (fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy), BET (brunauer-emmett-teller) and BJH (barrett-joyner-halenda) analyses. The cytotoxicity of synthetic nanocarriers was evaluated on HEK-293Tcell lines at concentration of 1-500 μg/ml using MTT method. Finally, targeted transfection of GFP plasmid using green porous particles was performed using an external magnetic field. Biogenic hematite nanoparticles with hexagonal crystal structures have a 3D pile flower-like morphology. The existence of rosemary phytochemicals in the construction of nanoparticles has caused minimal toxicity and high biocompatibility of nanocarriers. Also, TGA studies confirmed the stability of bionic nanoparticles. Superparamagnetic green nanocarriers at concentrations above 500 μg/ml is not toxic to HEK293T cells. The delivery efficiency of the plasmid was optimal at an N/P ratio of 3. Therefore, the porous α-Fe₂O₃ green nanocarriers are non-viral and safe carriers with potential applications in gene therapy.