Abstract
The study was designed to evaluate the effect of varying concentrations of ion-carriers on the synthesis of zinc oxide nano-particles (ZONs). We also evaluated the anti-proliferative activity, morphological changes, ROS generation, nuclear apoptosis and caspase-3 activity of two ZON samples in human skin cancer cell line A431. The XRD analysis of both samples confirmed the crystallinity and pure nature of ZONs. SEM analysis showed spider chrysanthemum-like shape, while the TEM data determined the diameter size of nanostructures as 40 nm (ZON-1) and <20 nm (ZON-2). UV–visible spectroscopy depicted characteristic ZnO band with higher intensity and minor shift in λmax recorded for ZON-2. The anti-proliferative assay showed that ZON-2 exhibited more cytotoxic effect than ZON-1. The IC50 value of ZON-1 and ZON-2 was obtained as 24.5 and 15.1 µM, respectively. ROS generation in terms of percentage of fluorescence intensity was found to be greater in ZON-2 treated cells as compared to ZON-1 treated cells. The fluorescent nuclear dye DAPI revealed more fragmented apoptotic cells in ZON-2 treated A431 cells. ZON-2 also induced higher activity of executioner caspase-3. This study demonstrates that the smaller sized ZONs showed pronounced cytotoxicity against A431 cell line, signifying that the ZON-2 could play a potential role in nano-drug delivery.
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•Zinc oxide nanoparticles are a type of metal oxide nanoparticle with an extensive use in biomedicine.•The aim of this study is to evaluate in vitro the cytotoxic effects of ZONs in samples in human skin cancer cell line A431.•Zinc oxide nano-particles −2 could play a potential role in nano-drug delivery.•ZONs samples could potentially be used as chemotherapeutic agents against human skin cancer.