Investigation of the Iron Oxide Nanoparticle Effects on Amyloid Precursor Protein Processing in Hippocampal Cells

Introduction: Iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe2O3-NPs) are small magnetic particles that widely used in different aspects of biology and medicine in modern life. Fe2O3-NP accumulated in the living cells due to absence of active system to excrete the iron ions so damages cellular organelles by highly reactivity. Method: Herein cytotoxic effects of Fe2O3-NP with 50 nm size were investigated on primary culture of neonatal rat hippocampus by MTT assay. Pathophysiological signs of Alzheimer disease such as amyloid precursor protein (APP) expression, Aβ aggregation, soluble APPα and APPβ secretion also were investigated in hippocampal cells treated by various concentration of NP for different exposure time. Results: Our results revealed, Fe2O3-NP treatment causes oxidative stress in cells that accompanied by upregulation of the APP and Aβ in a concentration dependent manner. NP exposing also leads to more secretion of sAPPβ rather than sAPPα that concluded to increased activation of β-secretase in NP received cells. All of the harmful effects accumulate in neurons that could not be renovated so lead to neurodegeneration in Alzheimer disease. Conclusion: This study approved iron-based NPs could help to develop the Alzheimer and related neurological disorders and explained why some of the iron chelators have therapeutic potential in Alzheimer disease.