Targeted Delivery of Letrozole-loaded Mg-doped Cobalt Ferrite Nanoparticles for Breast Cancer Treatment

Abstract

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in women globally. Letrozole is an aromatase inhibitor used as an anticancer drug. Conventional Letrozole therapies for breast cancer often cause adverse effects when administered orally or parenterally. Efforts have been made to develop an advanced drug delivery system for breast cancer treatment, aiming to improve drug release accuracy and therapeutic efficacy while minimizing side effects. This study focuses on magnesium-doped cobalt ferrite nanoparticles (Mg-doped CFNPs) as potential drug delivery carrier for breast cancer treatment. Mg-doped CFNPs with the chemical formula Co1-xMgxFe2O4 (where x=0.0, 0.05, 0.10, 0.15, 0.20 and 0.25) were synthesized with different concentrations of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25% by the sol gel method with a fine size of 30-70 nm and their characteristics such as surface morphology, structural properties, chemical composition, and charge were investigated using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and zeta potential analysis respectively. After synthesis, the Mg-doped CFNPs were coated with PEG and encapsulated with Letrozole, which exhibited <10% hemolytic activity across all concentrations, as well as minimal cytotoxic effects on non-cancerous cells (HEK- 293) but exhibited significant toxicity towards breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7, MDA- MB231).The best results were obtained at a concentration of 25% in both the hemolytic assay and the MTT assay, which indicated that increasing the amount of magnesium in cobalt decreased the toxicity and increased the drug release efficiency of nanoparticles.