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

MARIANA MARDIROSIAN; MARIANELA LASAGNA; MARIEL NÚÑEZ; TAMARA GALARZA; NURIA ESPERT; MARIA CAROLINA PARRA; CECILIA LASCANO; CLAUDIA COCCA; ANDRÉS VENTURINO

Mar del Plata

Congreso; Reunión Anual de Sociedades de Biociencias 2022; 2022

Sociedad Argentina de Investigación Clínica

The demand for crude oil hydrocarbons represents a growing concern worldwide due to pollution problems from drilling, productionand transportation. Thus, it is important to perform toxicity studiesto assess the risk associated with these incidents, not only for theenvironment but also for humans. Our aim was to evaluate the effects of anthracene, a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH), andmagnetite nanoparticles coated with oleic acid (NP), developed andsynthetized by our group for the remediation of water contaminated with PAH, on MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cells. Westudied anthracene and NP effects on survival and apoptosis. Furthermore, we performed Prussian blue staining to evaluate NP uptake and its cellular localization. MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lineswere exposed for 72 h to either anthracene (0; 3,5; 7; 15 and 28 µM)or NP (0; 12,5; 25; 50; 100 and 200 mg/L). After the incubation, weperformed MTT assay to assess cell viability and the Hoechst staining method to detect nuclear fragmentation during apoptosis. Nosignificant differences were observed in the survival of anthracenetreated cells compared to control. However, exposure to 100 and200 mg NP/L significantly decreased the survival of both cell lines(p< 0,05). No significant differences were observed in the number offragmented nuclei after anthracene or NP exposure. We observedthat NP were internalized and located in the cytoplasm and aroundthe nuclei in both cell lines. Surprisingly, our results suggest thatthe studied concentrations of anthracene do not affect viability orapoptosis. It will be necessary to further study other anthracene effects in order to understand the mechanism of action of the toxicityof this hydrocarbon. We also envisage the need of evaluating NPcontaining PAH after remediation to determine potential risks of thesystem. The effects derived from NP alone alert for secure usesavoiding nanomaterial release to the environment during remediation processes.