Core-shell iron oxide-platinium@metal organic framework/epirubicin nanospheres: Synthesis, characterization and anti-breast cancer activity

Potential cancer therapy can be accomplished by utilizing nano-based platforms that supply facilitated drug penetration inside cancer cells. In this paper, an intelligent therapeutic nano-based system derived from metal-organic framework (MOF) core-shell hybrids with the capacity of potential drug loading, tumor microenvironment-triggered drug release as well as promising cell penetration was developed. The core-shell iron oxide-platinium@MOF/epirubicin (Fe3O4-Pt@MOF/EPI) nanospheres were con-structed, where these nanoplatforms endow the system with the capability of pH-responsive drug release. The synthesized Fe3O4-Pt@MOF/EPI nanoparticles were characterized using different well-known techniques. The Fe3O4-Pt@MOF/EPI nanospheres were shown to have a dried size of around 50 nm (evidenced by SEM analysis), a spherical/core-shell/porous structure (evidenced by TEM), and an average hydrodynamic size of 92.89 nm (evidenced by DLS). Additionally, TGA analysis revealed that Fe3O4-Pt@MOF/EPI nanospheres had a weight loss at temperatures between 220 and 450 degrees C associated with the removal of MOF and EPI from the structure of core-shell nanospheres. The N2 adsorption-des-orption data also reflected the porosity of core-shell Fe3O4-Pt@MOF nanospheres by indicating type IV behavior with an apparent hysteresis loop in the range of 0.38-0.98. Furthermore, XRD analysis disclosed the changes in the peak intensity at positions of 57.2 degrees and 39.5 degrees, which indicated the effects of loaded MOF on Fe3O4-Pt nanosphere. Moreover, core-shell Fe3O4-Pt@MOF/EPI nanospheres showed high loading capacity and drug release in a pH-responsive manner. Cell viability and cellular uptake assays on mouse fibroblast (NIH3T3) and triple-negative 4 T1 breast (TNFB) tumors showed that the core-shell Fe3O4- Pt@MOF/EPI nanospheres effectively inhibited TNFB cancer cells proliferation through inducing higher cell penetration compared to free EPI while having good biocompatibility against NIH3T3 cells. In conclu-sion, the present study may provide useful information about the development of efficient anticancer platforms against breast cancer cells, while further in vivo and pre-clinical assays are required to support this study.(c) 2023 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).