Eur. Phys. J. Plus (2022) 137: 559
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjp/s13360-022-02754-z

Regular Article

Synthesis and physico-chemical characterization of Bi-doped Cobalt ferrite nanoparticles: cytotoxic effects against breast and prostate cancer cell lines

¹ I3N, Physics Department, University of Aveiro, Campus de Santiago, Aveiro, Portugal
² Laboratoire de Physique Appliquée, Faculté Des Sciences, Université de Sfax, B.P. 1171, 3000, Sfax, Tunisie
³ Physics Department, University of Coimbra, CFisUC, Rua Larga, 3004-516, Coimbra, Portugal
⁴ Department of Medical Sciences, Institute of Biomedicine (iBiMED), University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal
⁵ LAQV-REQUIMTE, Department of Chemistry, University of Aveiro, 3810-193, Aveiro, Portugal
⁶ Centre de Recherche Scientifique Et Technique en Analyses Physico-Chimiques CRAPC, BP384, Bou-Ismail, 42004, Tipaza, Algeria
⁷ Departamento de Engenharia Mecanica, Universidade de Coimbra, CEMMPRE, Rua Luis Reis Santos, 3030-788, Coimbra, Portugal

^a benaliadel96@gmail.com
^m benilde@uc.pt

Received: 15 August 2021
Accepted: 21 April 2022
Published online: 6 May 2022

Abstract

Pure and 15% bismuth-doped cobalt spinel ferrites [CoFe₂O₄ (CFO) and Co_0.85Bi_0.15Fe₂O₄ (CBFO)] were synthesized by the auto-combustion method using glycine as the fuel agent. Both structural and morphological studies confirmed the nanosize criteria for both compounds with an increase in particle size when introducing bismuth ions. The insertion of non-magnetic ions in the A-site of CFO compound induced a decrease in the saturation magnetization due to the increase of the antiferromagnetic interactions. The biocompatibility of CFO and CBFO nanoparticles with two different human breast cancer cells (T47-D and MDA-MB-231) and one prostate cancer cell (PC3) was evaluated. The CBFO compound induced a higher cancer cell mortality with IC₅₀ values of 61.12, 66.41 and 134.38 µM, for MDA-MB-231, T47-D and PC3 cancer cells, respectively. The cytotoxicity against normal human cells was found to be lower than 2% even for high CBFO particle concentrations. Accordingly, both prepared compounds could be considered as potential therapeutic agents against cancer cells.