Preparation and in Vitro Evaluation of Tamoxifen-Conjugated, Eco-Friendly, Agar-Based Hybrid Magnetic Nanoparticles for Their Potential Use in Breast Cancer Treatment

Tamoxifen is the drug of choice as hormonal therapy forhormonereceptor-positive breast cancers and can reduce the risk of breastcancer recurrence. However, oral tamoxifen has a low bioavailabilitydue to liver and intestinal metabolic passes. To overcome this problemand utilize the potential of this drug to its maximum, inorganic nanoparticlecarriers have been exploited and tested to increase its bioavailability.Biocompatibility and unique magnetic properties make iron oxide nanoparticlesan excellent choice as a drug delivery system. In this study, we developedand tested a "green synthesis" approach to synthesizeiron nanoparticles from green tea extract and coated them with agarfor longer stability (AG-INPs). Later, these hybrid nanoparticleswere conjugated with tamoxifen (TMX). By using this approach, we synthesizedstable agar-coated tamoxifen-conjugated iron nanoparticles (TMX-AG-INPs)and characterized them with Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy.The average particle size of AG-INPs was 26.8 nm, while the averageparticle size of tamoxifen-loaded iron nanoparticles, TMX-AG-INPs,was 32.1 nm, as measured by transmission and scanning electron microscopy.The entrapment efficiency of TMX-AG-INPs obtained by the drug releaseprofile was 88%, with a drug loading capacity of 43.5%. TMX-AG-INPswere significantly (p < 0.001) efficient in killingbreast cancer cells when tested in vitro on the establishedbreast cancer cell line MCF-7 by cell viability assay, indicatingtheir potential to control cell proliferation.