Racca Luisa, Limongi Tania, Vighetto Veronica, Dumontel Bianca, Ancona Andrea, Canta Marta, Canavese Giancarlo, Garino Nadia, Cauda Valentina
Department of Applied Science and Technology, Politecnico di Torino, Turin, Italy.
Front Bioeng Biotechnol. 2020 Jun 5;8:577. doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2020.00577. eCollection 2020.
In the last years, different nanotools have been developed to fight cancer cells. They could be administered alone, exploiting their intrinsic toxicity, or remotely activated to achieve cell death. In the latter case, ultrasound (US) has been recently proposed to stimulate some nanomaterials because of the US outstanding property of deep tissue penetration and the possibility of focusing. In this study, for the first time, we report on the highly efficient killing capability of amino-propyl functionalized ZnO nanocrystals (ZnO NCs) in synergy with high-energy ultrasound shock waves (SW) for the treatment of cancer cells. The cytotoxicity and internalization of ZnO NCs were evaluated in cervical adenocarcinoma KB cells, as well as the safety of the SW treatment alone. Then, the remarkably high cytotoxic combination of ZnO NCs and SW was demonstrated, comparing the effect of multiple (3 times/day) SW treatments toward a single one, highlighting that multiple treatments are necessary to achieve efficient cell death. At last, preliminary tests to understand the mechanism of the observed synergistic effect were carried out, correlating the nanomaterial surface chemistry to the specific type of stimulus used. The obtained results can thus pave the way for a novel nanomedicine treatment, based on the synergistic effect of nanocrystals combined with highly intense mechanical pressure waves, offering high efficiency, deep and focused tissue penetration, and a reduction of side effects on healthy cells.
在过去几年中,已开发出不同的纳米工具来对抗癌细胞。它们可以单独给药,利用其内在毒性,或者被远程激活以实现细胞死亡。在后一种情况下,由于超声具有深层组织穿透的出色特性以及聚焦的可能性,最近有人提出使用超声来刺激某些纳米材料。在本研究中,我们首次报道了氨基丙基功能化的氧化锌纳米晶体(ZnO NCs)与高能超声冲击波(SW)协同作用对癌细胞的高效杀伤能力。在宫颈腺癌KB细胞中评估了ZnO NCs的细胞毒性和内化情况,以及单独进行SW治疗的安全性。然后,通过比较多次(每天3次)SW治疗与单次治疗的效果,证明了ZnO NCs和SW具有显著的高细胞毒性组合,强调需要多次治疗才能实现有效的细胞死亡。最后,进行了初步测试以了解观察到的协同效应的机制,将纳米材料的表面化学与所使用的特定刺激类型相关联。因此,所获得的结果可为基于纳米晶体与高强度机械压力波协同效应的新型纳米医学治疗铺平道路,这种治疗具有高效率、深层且聚焦的组织穿透能力,并减少对健康细胞的副作用。