Synergistic response of PEG coated manganese dioxide nanoparticles conjugated with doxorubicin for breast cancer treatment and MRI application

In this research work, we designed a smart biodegradable PEG-coated MnO₂ nanoparticles conjugated with doxorubicin (PMnO₂-Dox NPs) for dual chemo-photodynamic therapy and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) application. This highly sensitive pH-responsive PMnO₂-Dox NPs causes effective drug release under acidic pH environment. PMnO₂-Dox NPs not only improves the efficacy of chemo-photodynamic therapy due to synergistic response as well as improved MRI imaging via boosting T₁ MRI contrast. Manifold characterization techniques have been employed for materials investigation. Crystallography of PMnO₂-Dox NPs were performed by using XRD analysis, which confirmed tetragonal crystal structure with an approximate crystallite size of 20–30 nm. Surface morphology was confirmed via SEM analysis, results indicated the spherical and asymmetric agglomerated nanocluster of PMnO₂-Dox NPs. In in vitro bioassay, the anticancer activity of PMnO₂-Dox NPs were tested against breast cancer (MCF-7) cell line using MTT test. Moreover, it can also inhibit the growth of primary and secondary cancers without light exposure. Results suggested that PMnO₂-Dox NPs not only convenient for cancer treatment via combined chemo-photodynamic therapy but also address the way towards a comprehensive strategy for MRI application via bright contrast agent T1 after overcoming the problem of multidrug resistance (MDR) and synergistic response of therapeutic analysis.