Glutamic acid functionalized casein-calciumferrite magnetic nanosystem based on paired targeting effect for synergistic anticancer therapy

Abstract Herein, we developed a multifunctional protein-inorganic hybrid nanocarrier based on superparamagnetic calcium ferrite nanoparticles (CFNP) hybridized with milk protein casein (CN), further functionalized with glutamic acid (GL) and co-loaded with natural anticancer drug thymoquinone (THY). The formulation exhibited good magnetism properties, colloidal stability and smaller particle size distribution with 87.4 % drug encapsulation efficiency. The stimuli responsive structural configuration of the carrier realized high concentrations of the drug at cancer site in response to acidic pH and external magnetic field. Cytotoxicity assay on the U87 cells exhibited superior anti-tumor efficacy of the formulation with 60-fold increase in cytotoxicity of the drug in comparison to free THY, based on the synergistic effects of GL targeting and CFNP incorporation.