toxicity comparison of two nanocarriers, magnetic mesoporous silica and polyoxometalate, using in vitro methods in pc-3 cells

Nanocarriers have garnered significant global attention in pharmaceutical research due to their potential to revolutionize drug transportation and formulation. these systems enhance therapeutic efficacy, minimize off-target effects, and enable controlled release, making the identification of safer, more efficient nano-delivery platforms critical for advancing in vitro and clinical applications. in this study, we investigated the cytotoxicity of two novel drug delivery systems—superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles coated with silica (spion@silica) and iron-containing polyoxometalate (femo6)—against prostate cancer (pc-3) and normal chinese hamster ovary (cho) cell lines. spion@silica and femo6 were synthesized via co-precipitation and solvothermal methods, respectively, yielding uniform particle sizes of 20 nm and 50 nm, as confirmed by transmission electron microscopy (tem). structural and compositional integrity were validated using fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (ftir), energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (edx), and scanning electron microscopy (sem). cytotoxicity assessments via mtt assay revealed distinct profiles for the two systems. femo6 demonstrated potent tumor-killing activity, reducing pc-3 cell viability to 35% at 48 hours post-treatment, compared to 65% viability with spion@silica. however, femo6 also exhibited moderate cytotoxicity toward cho cells (55% viability), suggesting non-selective mechanisms such as reactive oxygen species generation or mitochondrial disruption. in contrast, spion@silica showed minimal toxicity to healthy cells (85% cho viability), attributed to the biocompatible silica shell shielding the magnetic core. these findings highlight a critical trade-off: while femo6’s polyoxometalate structure enables robust anticancer activity, its broader cytotoxicity necessitates caution in therapeutic applications. spion@silica, with its favorable safety profile, emerges as a promising candidate for targeted drug delivery, though its lower tumor suppression efficacy warrants further optimization.