Synthesis of Iron oxide Nanoparticle using Propolis from Northern Cyprus and Evaluation of its Antibacterial, Anticancer Potential on MDA-MB 231 cells

Research in nanotechnology has progressed in the last decades, and it is purposeful to explore the applications of biocompatible nanoparticles in general and their anticancer attribute specifically. This study is aimed at examining the cytotoxic effects of biocompatible Northern Cyprus propolis extract of iron oxide nanoparticles (PE-Fe2O3-NPs) on MDA-MB-231 epithelial human breast cancer cell line, in vitro. Propolis extract were used to obtain PE-Fe2O3-NPs and further characterized using several methods like ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, scanning electronic microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis. The PE-Fe2O3-NPs has a distinctive Surface Plasmon Resonance band at 350 nm. The prepared PE-Fe2O3-NPs had a size of 108 nm by diameter with a zeta potential of +33.9 mV which indicates a good stability of the nanoparticles’ while the size of Fe2O3-NPs was 89.40 nm by diameter. Antibacterial result showed that Fe2O3-NPs has highest Minimum Inhibitory Concentration and Minimum Bactericidal Concentration as compared to PE-Fe2O3-NPs with different concentration of propolis extract as regards the tested microorganisms. This indicates that PE-Fe2O3-NPs possesses a more effective threat to eliminating pathogenic bacteria at lesser dosages, be it Gram-ve or Gram+ve. PE-Fe2O3-NPs effectively halted the spread of MDA-MB-231 cancer cell lines and thus, prove to be commendable for anticancer biomedical uses.

Sunday Onyebuchi Ukanwa and Erkay Özgör