Study on the Cytotoxic Effects of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Synthesized by Cytoplasmic Extract of Lactobacillus Fermentum

Background: The science has focused on the development of nanoparticles based on the green chemistry methods. Iron nanoparticles, are of particular interest due to their fast reaction and high efficiency for the treatment of cancer cells without damage to healthy cells. In this research, iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized using cytoplasmic extract of Lactobacillus fermentum and their cytotoxicity were investigated against MCF-7 cell and HEK293 normal cell.Methods: Cytoplasmic extract of Lactobacillus fermentum was prepared using freeze thaw method. The achieved extract was added to an equal volume of ferrous sulfate III solution at a concentration of 10-3 molar and incubated for 3 weeks in the presence of 5% carbon dioxide XRD and TEM analyses were performed in order to determine the size and shape of the nanoparticles. The cytotoxic effects of the nanoparticles against cancer and normal cells were studied using MTT test.Results: The change of solution color to black was a first sign of the production of Fe3O4 nanoparticles. XRD and TEM confirmed the production of the Fe3O4 nanoparticles and determined that the nanoparticles were spherical in shape and had the average particle size of 10-15 nm. A comparison of the toxicity of the synthesized nanoparticles on the two cell lines showed a significant decrease of the survival rate of MCF-7 cells compared to normal HEK 293cells with increasing Fe3O4 nanoparticles concentration.Conclusion: The use of cytoplasmic extract of Lactobacillus fermentum for the production of iron oxide nanoparticles could be considered as an effective biological method in green synthesis of nanoparticles