Green synthesis, characterization, and anticancer activity of hyaluronan/zinc oxide nanocomposites

Abstract

The study describes an in situ green biosynthesis of zinc oxide nanocomposite using the seaweed Sargassum muticum water extract and hyaluronan biopolymer. The morphology and optical properties of the hyaluronan/zinc oxide (HA/ZnO) nanocomposite were determined by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, field emission scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and ultraviolet–vis analysis. Electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis showed that the zinc oxide nanoparticles were polydispersed with a mean size of 10.2±1.5 nm. The nanoparticles were mostly hexagonal in crystalline form. The HA/ZnO nanocomposite showed the absorption properties in the ultraviolet zone that is ascribed to the band gap of zinc oxide nanocomposite. In the cytotoxicity study, cancer cells, pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PANC-1), ovarian adenocarcinoma (CaOV-3), colonic adenocarcinoma (COLO205), and acute promyelocytic leukemia (HL-60) cells were treated with HA/ZnO nanocomposite. At 72 hours of treatment, the half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value via the 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay was 10.8±0.3 μg/mL, 15.4±1.2 μg/mL, 12.1±0.9 μg/mL, and 6.25±0.5 μg/mL for the PANC-1, CaOV-3, COLO-205, and HL-60 cells, respectively, showing that the composite is most toxic to the HL-60 cells. On the other hand, HA/ZnO nanocomposite treatment for 72 hours did not cause toxicity to the normal human lung fibroblast (MRC-5) cell line. Using fluorescent dyes and flow cytometry analysis, HA/ZnO nanocomposite caused G2/M cell cycle arrest and stimulated apoptosis-related increase in caspase-3 and -7 activities of the HL-60 cells. Thus, the study shows that the HA/ZnO nanocomposite produced through green synthesis has great potential to be developed into an efficacious therapeutic agent for cancers.

The Advancing of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

“…Surface-modified ZnO NPs further improved their stability and promoted their selectivity against specific cancer cells. The central attention is on the functionalization of the ZnO NPs surface with different kinds of biological molecules comprising different types of proteins, peptides, nucleic acids, folic acid, hyaluronan, and so on [ 47 , 57 , 71 – 73 ]. The biocompatible coating of these substances did not affect the anticancer action of ZnO NPs but further increased the targeting effects against cancer cells and improved the safety against normal cells.…”

“…Namvar et al produced hyaluronan/ZnO nanocomposite (HA/ZnO) through green synthesis for the first time for cancer treatment [ 57 ]. The HA/ZnO nanocomposites caused morphological changes and inhibited proliferation of cancer cells (pancreatic adenocarcinoma PANC-1 cell, ovarian adenocarcinoma CaOV-3 cell, colonic adenocarcinoma COLO205 cell, and acute promyelocytic leukemia HL-60 cell) in dose- and time-dependent manner.…”

Antitumor Potential of Green Synthesized ZnONPs Using Root Extract of Withania somnifera against Human Breast Cancer Cell Line

“…However, studies have highlighted the promiscuity of these nanoparticles, whose bioaccumulation into the ecosystem may be exponentially hazardous because their interactions with the host immune system is as yet ambiguous [18]. Although regulations suggest that the ZnONPs are GRAS, various studies argue that metal oxide nanoparticles are capable of inducing toll-like receptor-(TLR) mediated inflammatory responses apart from depleting the glutathione (GSH) levels, while subsequently acting as a pro-oxidant immunotoxic agent [17,[19][20][21][22][23]. In addition, ZnONPs are reported to modulate the macrophage response to diseased conditions [20].…”

<p>Anticancer Effects of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles Through Altering the Methylation Status of Histone on Bladder Cancer Cells</p>

“…Similarly, studies also show that ZnO nanoparticles could restrain cell growth through induction of cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in multiple cancer cells. 22,23 Moreover, we further evaluated the T24 cell invasion and migration after nZnO exposure for 48 hrs. The transwell assay shows that cells treated with nZnO were lower in capacity to penetrate the membrane than those without nZnO treatment, especially for 10μg/mL nZnO ( Figure 3C).…”