Magnetic Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Conjugated to Anti-Cancer Drug for More Efficient Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer (NSCLC) Therapy

Optimizing anti-cancer drug delivery effectiveness through the development of smart and selective drug delivery platforms has improved clinical outcomes for Non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. NSCLC, continue to be the most dominant subtype of lung cancer, which stands as the leading cause to cancer related deaths worldwide. Herein, we created a novel nanoformulation utilizing ultra small superparamagnetic iron oxide cores as the foundation. The nanocarriers underwent surface modification with SiO2 coating to improve their biocompatibility characteristics. A targeted FDA approved tyrosine kinase inhibitor TKI drug (Gefitinib) has been selected, termed GEF-FeSiN NPs, to enable specific drug transport to NSCLC cells. Physicochemical characterisation and attributes for both non-targeted and targeted nanocarrier systems were established. Then, the anti-cancer efficacy, cellular internalization of the developed nanocarriers were assessed and compared. Results showed that the nanoparticles were successfully fabricated with a mean final diameter of 10 nm. S10 sample exhibits best properties for biomedical use, featuring a uniform size distribution, elevated saturated magnetization with interesting crystalline structure. The cytotoxic improvement effects and cellular internalization of these targeted nanocarriers were very interesting in GEF-FeSiN NPs responsive specific NSCLC-A549 cells against nonspecific NSCLC cells (HCT-116) or more interesting GEF-FeSiN NPs on normal HEK-293 cells. Flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy conducted on A549 cells following a 24-hour with various treatments showed induced apoptosis in NSCLC cells overexpressing EGFR. These findings highlight the promise of these functionalized nanoparticles for advancement as a magnetically guided targeted delivery system.