Toxicity testing of indocyanine green and fluorodeoxyglucose conjugated iron oxide nanoparticles with and without exposure to a magnetic field

Iron nanoparticles (MNPs) are known to induce membrane damage and apoptosis of cancer cells. In our study we determined whether FDG coupled with iron oxide magnetic nanoparticles can exert the same destructive effect on cancer cells. This research study presents data involving NIC-H727 human lung, bronchus epithelial cells exposed to conjugated fluorodeoxyglucose conjugated with iron-oxide magnetic nanoparticles and indocyanine green (ICG) dye (FDG-MNP-ICG), with and without the application of a magnetic field. Cell viability inferred from MTT assay revealed that FDG-MNPs had no significant toxicity towards noncancerous NIC-H727 human lung, bronchus epithelial cells. However, percentage cell death was much higher using a magnetic field, for the concentration of FDG-MNP-ICC used in our experiments. Magnetic field was able to destroy cells containing MNPs, while MNPs alone had significantly lower effects. Additionally, MNPs alone in these low concentrations had less adverse effects on healthy (non-target) cells.