Evaluation of Anticancer Activities of Gallic Acid and Tartaric Acid Vectorized on Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

Background: Cancer is one of the leading causes of death. New tactics targeting the survival pathways that provide effective drugs are being developed. Objective: Super paramagnetic nanoparticle serves as drug carrier for drug delivery system. Herein, Iron oxide-CMC-TA and Iron oxide-CMC-GA nanoparticles are synthesized for this target. Methods: Iron oxide (Fe2O3) nanoparticles are synthesized, bound to carboxymethyl chitosan (CMC) which are then conjugated to tartaric acid (TA) or gallic acid (GA) to form Iron oxide-CMC-TA and Iron oxide-CMC-GA nanoparticles. Those nanoparticles were characterized and the cytotoxicity effect was evaluated when associated with/without bee venom to measure the synergistic effect on A549 and WI-38 cell lines. In addition, apoptotic genes expression in A549 was evaluated when treated with both nanoparticles. Results: We showed that the cytotoxicity effect of TA and GA on A549 and WI-38 cell lines was increased when they immobilized on iron oxide-CMC nanoparticles and the effect was synergistically elevated when added to bee venom. The cytotoxic activity of these two nanoparticles was higher in A549 cancer cell line when compared with WI-38 normal cell line. Moreover, the expression of apoptotic genes was elevated. Conclusion: Iron oxide-CMC-TA nanoparticle and Iron oxide-CMC-GA nanoparticle can selectively induce apoptosis in cancer cell lines more than in normal cell lines, which is an important aspect in cancer cell targeting process to minimize damage upon normal cells.