A novel quercetin-loaded NiFe2O4@Liposomes hybrid biocompatible as a potential chemotherapy/hyperthermia agent and cytotoxic effects on breast cancer cells

With nanotechnology development, breast cancer has attracted tremendous research interest in treatment development as one of the significant threats to public health. Magnetoliposomes (MLs) offer multiple applications for use in cancer therapy, such as drug delivery (DD) mediated by alternating magnetic fields (AMF). The present study aims to synthesize nickel ferrite (NiFe2O4) magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) encapsulated within nano-liposomes (NiFe2O4@Liposome) to form MLs. Herein, Quercetin (QC)-loaded MLs (QC-MLs) nanocomposites were applied as hyperthermia (HT), DD system, and chemo-hyperthermia in the presence of AMF. It is the first time to fabricate QC-loading NiFe2O4@Liposome for biomedical applications. The drug loading (DL) and entrapment efficiency (EE) of free QC, MLs, and QC-MLs were evaluated, QC was efficiently encapsulated into MLs, and the EE and DL were up to 83.5 +/- 1.4 % and 7.3 +/- 0.1 %, respectively. Furthermore, we applied MHT on QC-MLs and MLs with a specific absorption rate (SAR) of 200 and 205 W/g, respectively, at the same concentration (6 mg/mL). The in-vitro QC release from MLs functionalized magnetite QC-loaded MLs was studied at 62.3 % at pH 5.1 and 44 % at pH 7.4, proving the encapsulated QC pH after 24 h. The MCF-7 cell line was used as an in-vitro model. Cytotoxic studies of novel synthesized QC-MLs, free QC, and MLs were evaluated by MTT assay on the MCF-7 cancer cell.