CYTOTOXIC EFFECTS OF ANTHRACENE AND MAGNETITE NANOPARTICLES COATED WITH OLEIC ACID ON BREAST CANCER CELLS.

MARDIROSIAN, M.N.; LASAGNA, M.; NÚÑEZ, M.; GALARZA, T; ESPERT, N; PARRA, MC; LASCANO C; COCCA, C; VENTURINO A

Congreso; Reunión Conjunta SAIC - SAI- SAFIS; 2022

The demand for crude oil hydrocarbons represents a growing concern worldwide due topollution problems from drilling, production and transportation. Thus, it is important toperform toxicity studies to assess the risk associated with these incidents, not only for theenvironment but also for humans. Our aim was to evaluate the effects of anthracene, apolycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), and magnetite nanoparticles coated with oleic acid(NP), developed and synthetized by our group for the remediation of water contaminated withPAH, on MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. We studied anthracene and NP effectson survival and apoptosis. Furthermore, we performed Prussian blue staining to evaluate NPuptake and its cellular localization. MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines were exposed for 72 h toeither anthracene (0; 3,5; 7; 15 and 28 µM) or NP (0; 12,5; 25; 50; 100 and 200 mg/L). After theincubation, we performed MTT assay to assess cell viability and the Hoechst staining methodto detect nuclear fragmentation during apoptosis. No significant differences were observed inthe survival of anthracene treated cells compared to control. However, exposure to 100 and200 mg NP/L significantly decreased the survival of both cell lines (p< 0,05). No significantdifferences were observed in the number of fragmented nuclei after anthracene or NPexposure. We observed that NP were internalized and located in the cytoplasm and aroundthe nuclei in both cell lines. Surprisingly, our results suggest that the studied concentrations ofanthracene do not affect viability or apoptosis. It will be necessary to further study otheranthracene effects in order to understand the mechanism of action of the toxicity of thishydrocarbon. We also envisage the need of evaluating NP containing PAH after remediationto determine potential risks of the system. The effects derived from NP alone alert for secureuses avoiding nanomaterial release to the environment during remediation processes.