Effective combination of biocompatible zinc oxide nanocrystals and high-energy shock waves for the treatment of colorectal cancer

Cancer Nanotechnology

卷:14

Research

Marco Carofiglio¹  Luisa Racca¹  Giada Rosso¹  Giulia Mesiano¹  Valentina Cauda¹  Sharmila Fagoonee²  Fiorella Altruda² 

[1] Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, C.So Duca Degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Turin, Italy;

[2] Institute of Biostructure and Bioimaging, National Research Council (CNR), Via Nizza 52, 10126, Turin, Italy;Molecular Biotechnology Center Guido Tarone, University of Turin, Via Nizza 52, 10126, Turin, Italy;

关键词: Nanoparticle-assisted shock waves;    Stimuli-responsive therapy;    Colorectal cancer;    Cell death mechanisms;    Iron-doped ZnO nanoparticles;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12645-023-00195-6

 received in 2022-10-12, accepted in 2023-04-08,  发布年份 2023

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundColorectal cancer (CRC) is the third most diagnosed tumor worldwide, with a very high mortality rate, second only to lung cancer. Current treatments, such as surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy, are not effective enough and show several limitations. Among the emerging strategies, nanomedicine offers very powerful tools in cancer treatment. Recently, the combination of nanoparticle antitumor effect with a triggering external stimulation was formulated to boost up the cytotoxic activity.ResultsIn this work, we show the synergistic effect of oleic acid-capped zinc oxide nanocrystals (ZnO NCs) and mechanical high-energy shock waves (SW) in the treatment for CRC cells, in vitro. We tested two different types of ZnO NCs synthetized in our laboratory, the basal undoped ZnO NCs and the iron-doped ones (Fe:ZnO NCs). The presence of the oleic acid capping and the further amino-propyl functionalization guarantee a high colloidal stability to both NCs, while the iron doping confers to Fe:ZnO NCs interesting magnetic properties useful for imaging applications in a clinical perspective. Thus, the iron-doped ZnO NCs are very attractive as potentially theranostic nanoparticles, allowing both stimuli-responsive therapy and magnetic resonance imaging.Importantly, two colon adenocarcinoma cell lines, the HT-29 and the Dukes’ type C Colo 320DM cells were tested, both showing a good bio-tolerance and internalization rates of NCs. With the aim of eradicating the CRC cells, the possible synergism between the undoped/iron-doped ZnO NCs and an external physical stimulus, i.e., high-energy SW, was then here investigated in vitro. We demonstrated that the combined treatment resulted in an augmentation of the antitumor activity, especially for Colo 320DM cells, when compared to controls. Moreover, a repeated and sequenced SW treatment (three times/day, 3SW) after ZnO NCs exposure resulted in a further increased mortality of CRC cells.ConclusionOur work proposes the combination of the cytotoxic activity of ZnO NCs with the SW external stimulation to obtain a booster of the antitumor activity, which warrants further investigation in vivo on CRC as well as on other tumors.Graphical Abstract

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© The Author(s) 2023

【 图 表 】

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