Exploring the Interaction of Cobalt Oxide Nanoparticles with Albumin, Leukemia Cancer Cells and Pathogenic Bacterial by Multispectroscopic, Docking, Cellular and Antibacterial Approaches

Niloofar Arsalan, 1,* Elahe Hassan Kashi, 2,* Anwarul Hasan, 3, 4 Mona Edalat Doost, 5 Behnam Rasti, 6 Bilal Ahamad Paray, 7 Mona Zahed Nakhjiri, 1 Soyar Sari, 2 Majid Sharifi, 8 Koorosh Shahpasand, 9 Keivan Akhtari, 10 Setareh Haghighat, 5 Mojtaba Falahati 8 1Department of Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Lahijan Branch, Islamic Azad University (IAU), Lahijan, Guilan, Iran; 2Department of Cellular and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technology, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran; 3Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar; 4Biomedical Research Centre, Qatar University, Doha 2713, Qatar; 5Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technology, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran; 6Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Islamic Azad University (IAU), Lahijan, Guilan, Iran; 7Department of Zoology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia; 8Department of Nanotechnology, Faculty of Advanced Sciences and Technology, Tehran Medical Sciences, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran; 9Department of Stem Cells and Developmental Biology, Cell Science Research Center, Royan Institute for Stem Cell Biology and Technology (RI-SCBT), Tehran, Iran; 10Department of Physics, University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran*These authors contributed equally to this workCorrespondence: Mojtaba Falahati; Anwarul Hasan Email mojtaba.falahati@alumni.ut.ac.ir; ahasan@qu.edu.qaAim: The interaction of NPs with biological systems may reveal useful details about their pharmacodynamic, anticancer and antibacterial effects.Methods: Herein, the interaction of as-synthesized Co 3O 4 NPs with HSA was explored by different kinds of fluorescence and CD spectroscopic methods, as well as molecular docking studies. Also, the anticancer effect of Co 3O 4 NPs against leukemia K562 cells was investigated by MTT, LDH, caspase, real-time PCR, ROS, cell cycle, and apoptosis assays. Afterwards, the antibacterial effects of Co 3O 4 NPs against three pathogenic bacteria were disclosed by antibacterial assays.Results: Different characterization methods such as TEM, DLS, zeta potential and XRD studies proved that fabricated Co 3O 4 NPs by sol-gel method have a diameter of around 50 nm, hydrodynamic radius of 177 nm with a charge distribution of − 33.04 mV and a well-defined crystalline phase. Intrinsic, extrinsic, and synchronous fluorescence as well as CD studies, respectively, showed that the HSA undergoes some fluorescence quenching, minor conformational changes, microenvironmental changes as well as no structural changes in the secondary structure, after interaction with Co 3O 4 NPs. Molecular docking results also verified that the spherical clusters with a dimension of 1.5 nm exhibit the most binding energy with HSA molecules. Anticancer assays demonstrated that Co 3O 4 NPs can selectively lead to the reduction of K562 cell viability through the cell membrane damage, activation of caspase-9, -8 and -3, elevation of Bax/Bcl-2 mRNA ratio, ROS production, cell cycle arrest, and apoptosis. Finally, antibacterial assays disclosed that Co 3O 4 NPs can stimulate a promising antibacterial effect against pathogenic bacteria.Conclusion: In general, these observations can provide useful information for the early stages of nanomaterial applications in therapeutic platforms.Keywords: cobalt oxide, nanoparticle, synthesis, spectroscopy, docking, anticancer, antibacterial