Identification of oncogenes associated with colorectal cancer mortality and the effect of cinnamon-conjugated magnetic nanoparticles on their expression.

Finding the molecular targets involved in the severity and drug resistance of Colorectal cancer (CRC) and applying targeted treatments against them is a promising approach. In this study, some candidate oncogenes related to disease severity and mortality were identified by extracting bioinformatics data, and the effect of FeO@Glu-Cinnamon NPs on the survival of CRC cells (SW480) and the expression of these oncogenes was investigated. The NPs were characterized by FT-IR, XRD, DLS and zeta potential measurement, TEM and SEM imaging, EDS-mapping and VSM analysis. Cytotoxicity of the NPs was evaluated by the MTT assay and a flow cytometry analysis was done to investigate cell apoptosis/necrosis levels and cell cycle analysis of cancer cells. The FeO@Glu-Cinnamon NPs with spherical morphology were correctly synthesized, containing no elemental impurities, with a size range of 26.8-60.2 nm, DLS of 213 nm, zeta potential of -15.4mV and maximum magnetization level of 20.33emu/g. Treatment of cancer cells with the NPs elevated primary and late apoptosis and cell necrosis levels to 20.85, 16.83 and 9.56% and treated cells were mainly arrested at the S and G2/M phases. The expression level of the oncogenes associated with mortality, SNAI1, THBS2 and INHBA reduced to 0.74, 0.66 and 0.7 folds, respectively. The magnetic properties of FeO NPs enable their potential use in targeted drug delivery, allowing for site-specific accumulation within tumors. This could minimize systemic toxicity while enhancing treatment efficacy.