Cerium oxide nanoparticles-loaded on chitosan for the investigation of anticancer properties
Nafas Abbasi, Masoud Homayouni Tabrizi, Touran Ardalan, Sana Roumi
Abstract
This study was designed to investigate the anticancer properties of Cerium oxide nanoparticle (nanoceria)-loaded on chitosan (CeCh-NPs). Nanoceria were prepared using melon shell extract by green synthesis method and then loaded on chitosan biopolymers by ion gelation method. The prepared nanoceria were characterised using DLS, XRD, FT-IR, FESEM and TEM studies. CeCh-NPs were characterised with DLS, Zeta potential and FESEM methods. The cytotoxicity of CeCh-NPs was evaluated by MTT method and the following the Flow cytometry, gene expression analysis and AO/PI staining methods were used to assess the occurrence of apoptosis. The antioxidant effects of CeCh-NP were investigated by qPCR. The FTIR and XRD results confirmed the presence of Ce-NPs and then the results of DLS, TEM and FESEM showed the formation of spherical nanoparticles with a size of 54.83 nm and PDI of 0.31. Data from physicochemical analysis of CeCh-NPs showed the formation of spherical nanoparticles with a diameter of 63.68 nm, PDI of 0.34 and zeta potential of 44.06 Mv. The IC50 of CeCh-NPs for HFF and A549 cells were reported about 50.65 and 131.108 μg/ml, respectively. Increasing the number of cells in the SubG1 phase in flow cytometry, increased expression of caspase 9 genes in treated cells and also AO/PI results confirmed the occurrence of apoptosis in CeCh-NPs-treated cells. On the other hand, induction of cell death was observed by reducing the expression of antioxidant genes (CAT, SOD) in CeCh-NPs-treated cells. The CeCh-NPs induced apoptosis and inhibited cancer cells by various mechanisms, including activation of the internal pathway of apoptosis (cas-9) and reduction of antioxidant genes. Therefore, CeCh-NPs can be suggested as an effective factor in cancer therapy studies.