In Vitro Study: Synthesis and Evaluation of Fe 3 O 4 /CQD Magnetic/Fluorescent Nanocomposites for Targeted Drug Delivery, MRI, and Cancer Cell Labeling Applications.

In the present study, first, Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles were functionalized using glutaric acid and then composited with CQDs. Doxorubicin (DOX) drug was loaded to evaluate the performance of the nanocomposite for targeted drug delivery applications. The XRD pattern confirmed the presence of characteristic peaks of CQDs and Fe 3 O 4 . In the FTIR spectrum, the presence of carboxyl functional groups on Fe 3 O 4 /CQDs was observed; DOX (positive charge) is loaded onto Fe 3 O 4 /CQDs (negative charge) by electrostatic absorption. FESEM and AFM images showed that the particle sizes of Fe 3 O 4 and CQDs were 23-75 and 1-3 nm, respectively. The hysteresis curves showed superparamagnetic properties for Fe 3 O 4 and Fe 3 O 4 /CQDs (57.3 and 8.4 emu/g). The Fe 3 O 4 hysteresis curve showed superparamagnetic properties (Ms and Mr: 57.3 emu/g and 1.46 emu/g. The loading efficiency and capacity for Fe 3 O 4 /CQDs were 93.90% and 37.2 mg DOX/g MNP, respectively. DOX release from Fe 3 O 4 /CQDs in PBS showed pH-dependent release behavior where after 70 h at pH 5 and 7.4, about 50 and 21% of DOX were released. Fluorescence images of Fe 3 O 4 /CQD-treated cells showed that Fe 3 O 4 /CQDs are capable of labeling MCF-7 and HFF cells. Also, T 2 -weighted MRI scans of Fe 3 O 4 /CQDs in water exhibited high r 2 relaxivity (86.56 mM -1 S -1 ). MTT assay showed that DOX-loaded Fe 3 O 4 /CQDs are highly biocompatible in contact with HFF cells (viability = 95%), but they kill MCF-7 cancer cells (viability = 45%). Therefore, the synthesized nanocomposite can be used in MRI, targeted drug delivery, and cell labeling.