A comparative cytotoxic study against breast cancer cells with nanoparticles and rods shaped structures

The zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures are highly influential material and exhibit numerous properties. Numerous physicochemical applications for instance electronic, catalyst, solar cells, hydrogen fuels and energy evolution. Besides the large application in various directions very few reports are available for the cytotoxic evaluations and their compression with nano particles (NPs) and nanrorods (NRs) against the breast (MCF-7) cancer cells. The ZnO-NPs and NRs were produced through solution process in a short time span and were well characterized. The cells viability was tested with MTT and NRU assays. A series of different concentrations (2 mu g/mL, 5 mu g/mL, 10 mu g/mL, 25 mu g/ mL, 50 mu g/mL, 100 mu g/mL and 200 mu g/ mL) of NRs and NPs were employed against cancer cells for to evaluate the % activity of sustained and non-sustained cells. The morphology of treated and control cells were observed via microscopy respec-tively. Including this, the genetic studies were also scrutinized, cell-cycle analysis express the upsurge in the apoptotic peak after a 24-h. Quantitative PCR (qPCR) data revealed that the mRNA levels of apop-totic genes such as p53, bax, and caspase-3 were upregulated, whereas bcl-2, an anti-apoptotic gene, was downregulated; therefore, apoptosis was mediated through the p53, bax, caspase-3, and bcl-2 pathways. (c) 2021 The Author. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Automated summary

Zinc oxide nanostructures have great potential in various fields such as electronics, catalysis, and solar energy. However, there is limited research on their cytotoxicity against breast cancer cells, especially compared to other nanoparticles. In this study, ZnO-NPs and NRs were synthesized and characterized, and their effects on cancer cell viability and gene expression were evaluated. The results revealed changes in the expression of apoptosis-related genes, indicating the potential of ZnO nanostructures in cancer treatment.