Synthesis and Characterization of Coated CoFe2O4 Nanoparticles with Biocompatible Compounds and In Vitro Toxicity Assessment on Glioma Cell Lines

Abstract

Rapid advances in the development of nanotechnology in recent years have led to functional magnetic nanoparticle types (MNPs) with different properties. The diverse applications of these nanoparticles make them a desirable candidate for use in biomedical areas due to their exclusive chemical and physical properties. The present work is conducted to study the in vitro biocompatibility of CoFe₂O₄@shell with different surface coatings (shell: ascorbic acid (AA), dextran (DEX), and polyethyleneimine (PEI). The cytotoxicity of coated nanoparticles is screened toward the glioma cancer line (C6) and fibroblast cell line (L929) using an MTT assay. CoFe₂O₄ NPs are synthesized using the co-precipitation method together with hydrothermal synthesis and characterized regarding their structural and magnetic properties using state-of-the-art techniques. Results showed the particles are consistent with the crystal structure of CoFe₂O₄ and the average crystallite size in the range of 16–18 nm. For the coated NPs, only a slight increase in the Hc is found except for the CoFe₂O₄@PEI NPs. The comparative analysis of the cytotoxic effects of CoFe₂O₄@shell NPs on L929 fibroblast and glioma cells shows that the cytotoxicity of samples is much more specific in brain tumor cells, especially it also indicates the significant efficacy of CoFe₂O₄@PEI in cancer cells.