Investigation of the synergistic effect of static and 50 Hz alternating magnetic fields on the effect of iron nanoparticles attached to the drug docetaxel with a polymer coating conjugated with aptamer on human breast cancer cells

Abstract

Nowadays, due to the side effects of high-dose chemotherapy drugs as well as treatments in the presence of ionizing radiation, cancer treatment with the magnetomechanical effect of superparamagnetic nanoparticles (TMMEP) is a growing research field. The principle of this technique is to apply mechanical force to cancer cells in order to destroy them by the vibrations of magnetic particles. For this purpose, magnetic nanoparticles are injected into the tumor or placed in the vicinity of cancer cells. Then an external magnetic field is applied. In addition to the apoptosis-inducing property due to the presence of their frequency-dependent oscillation, magnetic fields can cause cell destruction without a significant increase in temperature due to the presence of a magnetic moment in places where the nanoparticles accumulate sufficiently large. This fact introduces the magnetic field combined with superparamagnetic nanoparticles as a non-thermal treatment method. Materials and Methods: In this study, we investigate the effect of combined 50 Hz alternating and static magnetic field irradiation with superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles coated with cationic beta-aminoester polymer linked to TA1 aptamer and containing the chemotherapeutic drug DOCETAXEL (DTX) on human breast cancer MDA-MB-231 cells. The magnetic field intensities used were 20 mTesla for static and 10, 15 and 20 mTesla for alternating field. Findings: The nanoparticles synthesized in this study are non-toxic and the nanoformulation in the MDA-MBA-231 class caused a 1.3-fold reduction in the IC50 of the drug DTX. Different intensities of alternating magnetic field (mT5, 10, 20) had no significant effect on cell viability. Simultaneous treatment with the field and nanoparticles significantly reduced cell viability in the 4T1 class. While, this combination had no significant effect on MDA-MBA-231 cell viability but inhibited cell growth. Although alternating field improved the therapeutic properties of the nanoformulation, this effect was not statistically significant. In the study of cell death, a combination of apoptosis and necrosis (necrosis more than apoptosis) was observed in NP-apt treatment under alternating field. Also, static field had negative effects on aptamer and reduced its effects, while alternating field had no significant effect on the targeting power of nanoparticles with aptamer.