Iron Oxide Nanoparticles: Biosynthesis, Magnetic Behavior, Cytotoxic Effect

Iron Oxide Nanoparticles: Green Synthesis and Their Antimicrobial Activity

The rise of antimicrobial resistance caused by inappropriate use of these agents in various settings has become a global health threat. Nanotechnology offers the potential for the synthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) with antimicrobial activity, such as iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs). The use of IONPs is a promising way to overcome antimicrobial resistance or pathogenicity because of their ability to interact with several biological molecules and to inhibit microbial growth. In this review, we outline the pivotal findings over the past decade concerning methods for the green synthesis of IONPs using bacteria, fungi, plants, and organic waste. Subsequently, we delve into the primary challenges encountered in green synthesis utilizing diverse organisms and organic materials. Furthermore, we compile the most common methods employed for the characterization of these IONPs. To conclude, we highlight the applications of these IONPs as promising antibacterial, antifungal, antiparasitic, and antiviral agents.

Phytosynthesized Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Using Aqueous Extract of Saccharum arundinaceum (Hardy Sugar Cane), Their Characterizations, Antiglycation, and Cytotoxic Activities

The goal of the current study is to achieve plant-mediated synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe2O3 NPs). The plant extract of Saccharum arundinaceum was used as a reducing and stabilizing agent for the synthesis of Fe2O3 NPs. Different techniques such as energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), and UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-vis) were used to characterize the synthesis of Fe2O3 NPs. UV-visible spectroscopy verified the synthesis of Fe2O3 NPs using a surface plasmon resonance peak at a wavelength of 370 nm. SEM analysis specifies the spherical morphology of the synthesized nanoparticles with a size range between 30 and 70 nm. The reducing and capping materials of Fe2O3 NPs were revealed by FT-IR analysis based on functional group identification. The plant extract contained essential functional groups, such as C-H, C-O, N-H, -CH2, and -OH, that facilitate the green synthesis of Fe2O3 NPs. The EDX analysis detected the atomic percentage with the elemental composition of Fe2O3 NPs, while the XRD pattern demonstrated the crystallinity of Fe2O3 NPs. Furthermore, the synthesized Fe2O3 NPs showed potential antiglycation activity under in vitro conditions, which was confirmed by the efficient zone of inhibition on glycation of bovine serum albumin/glucose (BSA-glucose) in the order <100 < 500 < 1000 μg/mL, which revealed that Fe2O3 NPs showed significant antiglycation activity. Additionally, the cytotoxic activity against brain glioblastoma cells was assessed using the MTT assay, which exhibited diminished cytotoxic activity at concentrations lower than 300 μg/mL. Thus, we assumed that the resulting Fe2O3 NPs are a good option for use in drug delivery and cancer treatments.

Synthesis, Characterization, and Biological Properties of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Synthesized from Apis mellifera Honey

Green approaches for nanoparticle synthesis have emerged as biocompatible, economical, and environment-friendly alternatives to counteract the menace of microbial drug resistance. Recently, the utilization of honey as a green source to synthesize Fe2O3-NPs has been introduced, but its antibacterial activity against one of the opportunistic MDR pathogens, Klebsiella pneumoniae, has not been explored. Therefore, this study employed Apis mellifera honey as a reducing and capping agent for the synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe2O3-NPs). Subsequent to the characterization of nanoparticles, their antibacterial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory properties were appraised. In UV-Vis spectroscopic analysis, the absorption band ascribed to the SPR peak was observed at 350 nm. XRD analysis confirmed the crystalline nature of Fe2O3-NPs, and the crystal size was deduced to be 36.2 nm. Elemental analysis by EDX validated the presence of iron coupled with oxygen in the nanoparticle composition. In ICP-MS, the highest concentration was of iron (87.15 ppm), followed by sodium (1.49 ppm) and other trace elements (<1 ppm). VSM analysis revealed weak magnetic properties of Fe2O3-NPs. Morphological properties of Fe2O3-NPs revealed by SEM demonstrated that their average size range was 100-150 nm with a non-uniform spherical shape. The antibacterial activity of Fe2O3-NPs was ascertained against 30 clinical isolates of Klebsiella pneumoniae, with the largest inhibition zone recorded being 10 mm. The MIC value for Fe2O3-NPs was 30 µg/mL. However, when mingled with three selected antibiotics, Fe2O3-NPs did not affect any antibacterial activity. Momentous antioxidant (IC50 = 22 µg/mL) and anti-inflammatory (IC50 = 70 µg/mL) activities of Fe2O3-NPs were discerned in comparison with the standard at various concentrations. Consequently, honey-mediated Fe2O3-NP synthesis may serve as a substitute for orthodox antimicrobial drugs and may be explored for prospective biomedical applications.

Magnetic nanoparticles: multifunctional tool for cancer therapy

INTRODUCTION

Cancer has one of the highest mortality rates globally. The traditional therapies used to treat cancer have harmful adverse effects. Considering these facts, researchers have explored new therapeutic possibilities with enhanced benefits. Nanoparticle development for cancer detection, in addition to therapy, has shown substantial progress over the past few years.

AREA COVERED

Herein, the latest research regarding cancer treatment employing magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) in chemo-, immuno-, gene-, and radiotherapy along with hyperthermia is summarized, in addition to their physio-chemical features, advantages, and limitations for clinical translation have also been discussed.

EXPERT OPINION

MNPs are being extensively investigated and developed into effective modules for cancer therapy. They are highly functional tools aimed at cancer therapy owing to their excellent superparamagnetic, chemical, biocompatible, physical, and biodegradable properties.

Fabrication of Curcumin Diethyl γ-Aminobutyrate-Loaded Chitosan-Coated Magnetic Nanocarriers for Improvement of Cytotoxicity against Breast Cancer Cells

This study shows the effectiveness of magnetic-guide targeting in the delivery of curcumin diethyl γ-aminobutyrate (CUR-2GE), a prodrug of curcumin (CUR) previously synthesized to overcome unfavorable physicochemical properties of CUR. In this study, chitosan (Ch)-coated iron oxide nanoparticles (Ch-IONPs) were fabricated and optimized using Box-Behnken design-based response surface methodology for delivery of CUR-2GE. Ch was used as a coating material on the nanoparticle surface to avoid aggregation. The optimized condition for preparing Ch-IONPs consisted of using 4 mg Ch fabricated at pH 11 under a reaction temperature of 85 °C. The optimized Ch-IONPs were successfully loaded with CUR-2GE with sufficient loading capacity (1.72 ± 0.01%) and encapsulation efficiency (94.9 ± 0.8%). The obtained CUR-2GE-loaded Ch-IONPs (CUR-2GE-Ch-IONPs) exhibited desirable characteristics including a particle size of less than 50 nm based on TEM images, superparamagnetic property, highly crystalline IONP core, sufficient stability, and sustained-release profile. In the presence of permanent magnets, CUR-2GE-Ch-IONPs significantly increased cellular uptake and cytotoxicity toward MDA-MB-231 with a 12-fold increase in potency compared to free CUR-2GE, indicating the potential of magnetic-field assisted delivery of CUR-2GE-Ch-IONPs for the treatment of triple-negative breast cancer.

A highly efficient protein corona-based proteomic analysis strategy for the discovery of pharmacodynamic biomarkers

The composition of serum is extremely complex, which complicates the discovery of new pharmacodynamic biomarkers via serum proteome for disease prediction and diagnosis. Recently, nanoparticles have been reported to efficiently reduce the proportion of high-abundance proteins and enrich low-abundance proteins in serum. Here, we synthesized a silica-coated iron oxide nanoparticle and developed a highly efficient and reproducible protein corona (PC)-based proteomic analysis strategy to improve the range of serum proteomic analysis. We identified 1,070 proteins with a median coefficient of variation of 12.56% using PC-based proteomic analysis, which was twice the number of proteins identified by direct digestion. There were also more biological processes enriched with these proteins. We applied this strategy to identify more pharmacodynamic biomarkers on collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) rat model treated with methotrexate (MTX). The bioinformatic results indicated that 485 differentially expressed proteins (DEPs) were found in CIA rats, of which 323 DEPs recovered to near normal levels after treatment with MTX. This strategy can not only help enhance our understanding of the mechanisms of disease and drug action through serum proteomics studies, but also provide more pharmacodynamic biomarkers for disease prediction, diagnosis, and treatment.

Evaluation of the Antibacterial Properties of Iron Oxide, Polyethylene Glycol, and Gentamicin Conjugated Nanoparticles against Some Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria

Antibacterial resistance is observed as a public health issue around the world. Every day, new resistance mechanisms appear and spread over the world. For that reason, it is imperative to improve the treatment schemes that have been developed to treat infections caused by wound infections, for instance, Staphylococcus epidermidis (S. epidermidis), Proteus mirabilis (P. mirabilis), and Acinetobacter baumannii (A. baumannii). In this case, we proposed a method that involves mixing the Gentamicin (Gen) with iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe3O4 NPs) and a polymer (polyethylene glycol (PEG)) with Fe3O4 NPs. X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), scanning electron microscope (SEM), and transmission electron microscope (TEM) were used to characterize Fe3O4 NPs. Zeta potential and dynamic light scattering (DLS) were also assessed. The antibacterial activity of Fe3O4 NPs, Fe3O4 NPs+PEG, Fe3O4 NPs+Gen, and Fe3O4 NPs+PEG+Gen composites was investigated. The results showed a significant improvement in the antibacterial activity of nanoparticles against bacterial isolates, especially for the Fe3O4 NPs+PEG+Gen as the diameter of the inhibition zone reached 26.33 ± 0.57 mm for A. baumannii, 25.66 ± 0.57 mm for P. mirabilis, and 23.66 ± 0.57 mm for S. epidermidis. The Fe3O4 NPs, Fe3O4 NPs+PEG, Fe3O4+Gen, and Fe3O4+PEG+Gen also showed effectiveness against the biofilm produced by these isolated bacteria. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of Fe3O4 NPs for S. epidermidis was 25 µg mL−1 and for P. mirabilis and A. baumannii was 50 µg mL−1. The findings suggest that the prepared nanoparticles could be potential therapeutic options for treating wound infections caused by S. epidermidis, P. mirabilis, and A. baumannii.

Synergetic Antimicrobial Effect of Silver Nanoparticles Conjugated with Iprodione against Valsa mali

Apple tree canker induced by Valsamali is a vital disease in apple production around the world, and it highlyimpacts the development of apple industry. It is of great significance to study the inhibition effect of common fungicides and develop new fungistats for comprehensive control of apple tree canker. In this experiment, the inhibition activity of five fungicides, including mancozeb, metalaxyl, iprodione, prochloraz, and difenoconazole along with biosynthesized nanosilver against V. mali, were measured with the mycelium growth rate and agar well diffusion methods. The results showed that iprodione exhibited the best inhibitory effect, the median inhibition concentration (IC₅₀) of iprodione and nanosilver was 0.62 μg.mL⁻¹ and 45.50 μg.mL⁻¹, the suppression rate achieved 67.93% at 200 μg.mL⁻¹ of nanosilver. Moreover, a remarkable additive and synergistic antimicrobial effect was verified when silver nanoparticles were conjugated with iprodione at 9:1, 8:2, 7:3, and 6:4 (v/v), and the toxicity ratio was 1.04, 1.13, 1.01, and 0.98, respectively. It is proven that biosynthesized silver nanoparticles could effectively inhibit Valsamali, and it is possible to develop and screen silver nanoparticle-based nano pesticides to manage plant diseases synthetically.

Effects of Metal Oxide Nanoparticles in Zebrafish

Metal oxide nanoparticles (MO NPs) are increasingly employed in many fields with a wide range of applications from industries to drug delivery. Due to their semiconducting properties, metal oxide nanoparticles are commonly used in the manufacturing of several commercial products available in the market, including cosmetics, food additives, textile, paint, and antibacterial ointments. The use of metallic oxide nanoparticles for medical and cosmetic purposes leads to unavoidable human exposure, requiring a proper knowledge of their potentially harmful effects. This review offers a comprehensive overview of the possible toxicity of metallic oxide nanoparticles in zebrafish during both adulthood and growth stages, with an emphasis on the role of oxidative stress.

Emerging Application of Magnetic Nanoparticles for Diagnosis and Treatment of Cancer

Cancer is a disease that has resulted in millions of deaths worldwide. The current conventional therapies utilized for the treatment of cancer have detrimental side effects. This led scientific researchers to explore new therapeutic avenues with an improved benefit to risk profile. Researchers have found nanoparticles, particles between the 1 and 100 nm range, to be encouraging tools in the area of cancer. Magnetic nanoparticles are one of many available nanoparticles at present. Magnetic nanoparticles have increasingly been receiving a considerable amount of attention in recent years owing to their unique magnetic properties, among many others. Magnetic nanoparticles can be controlled by an external magnetic field, signifying their ability to be site specific. The most popular approaches for the synthesis of magnetic nanoparticles are co-precipitation, thermal decomposition, hydrothermal, and polyol synthesis. The functionalization of magnetic nanoparticles is essential as it significantly increases their biocompatibility. The most utilized functionalization agents are comprised of polymers. The synthesis and functionalization of magnetic nanoparticles will be further explored in this review. The biomedical applications of magnetic nanoparticles investigated in this review are drug delivery, magnetic hyperthermia, and diagnosis. The diagnosis aspect focuses on the utilization of magnetic nanoparticles as contrast agents in magnetic resonance imaging. Clinical trials and toxicology studies relating to the application of magnetic nanoparticles for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer will also be discussed in this review.

Cytotoxicity properties of plant-mediated synthesized K-doped ZnO nanostructures

In this study, potassium-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles (K-doped ZnO NPs) were green-synthesized using pine pollen extracts based on bioethics principles. The synthesized NPs were analyzed using X-ray diffraction (XRD), inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy (ICP-AES), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray analysis (EDXA), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The cytotoxicity of these nanoparticles (NPs) on normal macrophage cells and cancer cell lines was evaluated. In the same concentrations of K-doped ZnO and pure ZnO NPs, K-doped ZnO NPs demonstrated higher toxicity. The results confirmed that the doped potassium could increase cytotoxicity. The IC₅₀ of K-doped ZnO NPs, pure ZnO NPs, and the examined control drug were 497 ± 15, 769 ± 12, and 606 ± 19 µg/mL, respectively. Considering the obtained IC₅₀ of K-doped ZnO NPs, they were more toxic to the cancer cell lines and had less cytotoxicity on normal macrophage cells.

Simulation, In Vitro, and In Vivo Cytotoxicity Assessments of Methotrexate-Loaded pH-Responsive Nanocarriers

In this study, pH-responsive niosomal methotrexate (MTX) modified with ergosterol was prepared for potential anticancer application. The prepared formulation had a size of 176.7 ± 3.4 nm, zeta potential of −31.5 ± 2.6 mV, EE% of 76.9 ± 2.5%, and a pH-responsive behavior in two different pHs (5.4 and 7.4). In-silico evaluations showed that MTX intended to make a strong hydrogen bond with Span 60 compartments involving N2 and O4 atoms in glutamic acid and N7 atom in pteridine ring moieties, respectively. The cytotoxic effects of free and pH-MTX/Nio were assessed against MCF7 and HUVECs. Compared with free MTX, we found significantly lower IC50s when MCF7 cells were treated with niosomal MTX (84.03 vs. 9.464 µg/mL after 48 h, respectively). Moreover, lower cell killing activity was observed for this formulation in normal cells. The pH-MTX/Nio exhibited a set of morphological changes in MCF7 cells observed during cell death. In-vivo results demonstrated that intraperitoneal administration of free MTX (2 mg/kg) after six weeks caused a significant increase in serum blood urea nitrogen (BUN), serum creatinine, and serum malondialdehyde (MDA) levels of rats compared to the normal control rats. Treatment with 2 and 4 mg/kg doses of pH-MTX/Nio significantly increased serum BUN, serum creatinine, and serum lipid peroxidation. Still, the safety profile of such formulations in healthy cells/tissues should be further investigated.

Study of photocatalytic activity of green synthesized nickel oxide nanoparticles in the degradation of acid orange 7 dye under visible light

Environmental pollution is one of the most important problems that human beings face. Today, nanotechnology has played an important role in green chemistry and the use of nanoparticles in the removal of environmental pollutants is one of the newest methods of removing pollutants in the world. So, in this study, Nickel oxide nanoparticles (NiO NPs) of this work were successfully synthesized via a green method by the usage of nickel nitrate hexahydrate as the source of metal and Biebersteinia multifida extract as the stabilizing agent throughout different annealing temperatures. The physicochemical properties of the obtained NiO NPs were characterized through the application of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), ultraviolet visible (UV-vis), and Raman analysis. According to the results of SEM and PXRD, the prepared product contained a satisfying distribution and very fine cubic structure with minimal accumulation. The average crystal size of prepared nanoparticles was obtained 54-58 nm. The energy band gap of synthesized NiO NPs was calculated 3-3.7 using Tauc equation. The photocatalytic performance of NiO NPs was investigated under visible light through the decolourization reaction of acid orange 7 (AO7) dye in aqueous solution. Being composed at 300 °C of annealing temperature, these nanoparticles exhibited excellent adsorption and photocatalytic activity (90.2%) toward AO7 dye. Therefore, it can be indicated that the synthesized NiO NPs demonstrated an excellent dispersion in dye solution, as well as considerable photocatalytic activity.

Leishmanicidal activities of biosynthesized BaCO3 (witherite) nanoparticles and their biocompatibility with macrophages

The aim of this study was cost-effective and greener synthesis of barium carbonate (BaCO₃ or witherite) nanoparticles with economic importance, and to evaluate their therapeutic potentials and biocompatibility with immune cells. Barium carbonate nanoparticles were biosynthesized using black elderberry extract in one step with non-toxic precursors and simple laboratory conditions; their morphologies and specific structures were analyzed using field emission scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (FESEM-EDX). The therapeutic capabilities of these nanoparticles on the immune cells of murine macrophages J774 and promastigotes Leishmania tropica were evaluated. BaCO₃ nanoparticles with IC₅₀ = 46.6 µg/mL were more effective than negative control and glucantium (positive control) in reducing promastigotes (P < 0.01). Additionally, these nanoparticles with a high value of cytotoxicity concentration 50% (CC₅₀) were less toxic to macrophage cells than glucantime; however, they were significantly different at high concentrations compared to the negative control.