Comparison of the effect of magnetite (Fe3O4) iron oxide nanoparticles onmelanoma cells and healthy cells: an in vitro study

The aim of the current study is to investigate the anti-melanoma activity of bare magnetite (Fe3O4) iron oxide nanoparticles (MION) by comparing their effects on healthy cells. MION were synthesized, and characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and particle size analyzer; anti-melanoma activity of the nanoparticles (50-400 μg/ml) was investigated on melanoma cell lines (A375 and G361 cells) using normal human umbilical vein/vascular endothelium cell line (HUVEC) as control by focusing on intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level, viability and apoptosis through caspase-3 activity. FT-IR, XRD and particle size analyses results have illustrated that the synthesized MION (45.36 ± 0.33 nm) have attractive characteristics for biomedical applications. The MION have induced highly significant (p<0.01) dose-dependent increases in ROS levels in normal and melanoma cells. In addition, cellular interaction assays have illustrated that the MION have an effect on selectively killing the melanoma cells (IC50 values for HUVEC, G361 and A375 cells after 24h-treatment are 549.37 ± 20.48, 219.93 ± 15.76 and 152.02 ± 7.34 μg/ml, respectively, and after 72h-treatment are 270.69 ± 13.35, 151.41 ±8.61 and 102.56 ± 6.64 μg/ml, respectively) by selectively targeting mitochondria in cancerous cells that induce ROS mediated caspase-3 activation and apoptosis (the lowest (p<0.01) apoptosis and caspase-3 activity rates were observed in HUVEC cells compared to A375 and G361 cells). Thus, for further investigations, the synthesized MION can be considered as a potent agent in melanoma treatment or in combination therapies for melanoma treatment.