MOE Key Laboratory of Laser Life Science, Institute of Laser Life Science, College of Biophotonics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China; Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Laser Life Science, College of Biophotonics, South China Normal University, Guangzhou 510631, China.
College of Life Science, Shandong First Medical University and Shandong Academy of Medical Sciences, Taian 271016, China.
Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2021 May;124:112071. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2021.112071. Epub 2021 Mar 26.
Zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures have been widely studied in biomedical fields due to their special properties. In recent years, ZnO spherical nanoparticles (SNPs) with nano-size as an anti-tumor agent have been widely concerned. While the effects of the non-spherical shaped ZnO nanoparticles on tumor cell death have been rarely reported. Here, we prepared ZnO spiky nanoparticles (SPNPs) as the research subject. We found that the SPNPs showed superiority in killing tumor cells. To be specific, SPNPs presented a long-term cytotoxicity effect on killing tumor cells, as plenty of SPNPs retained on the cell plasma membrane's exterior and still showed toxicity effect on tumor cells after co-incubation multiple times. Moreover, compared to SNPs, it was encouraging that SPNPs still showed stronger cytotoxicity in both simulated circulatory systems of tumor cells and 3D tumor cell spheroids. The stronger toxicity against tumor cells suggested that ZnO SPNPs have more advantages on killing tumor cells as a promising nanomedicine.
氧化锌（ZnO）纳米结构由于其特殊性质，在生物医学领域得到了广泛的研究。近年来，具有纳米尺寸的氧化锌球形纳米粒子（SNPs）作为一种抗肿瘤剂受到了广泛关注。然而，非球形 ZnO 纳米粒子对肿瘤细胞死亡的影响却鲜有报道。在这里，我们制备了氧化锌刺状纳米粒子（SPNPs）作为研究对象。我们发现 SPNPs 在杀伤肿瘤细胞方面表现出优越性。具体来说，SPNPs 对肿瘤细胞表现出长期的细胞毒性作用，因为大量的 SPNPs 保留在细胞膜的外表面，并且在多次共孵育后仍然对肿瘤细胞表现出毒性作用。此外，与 SNPs 相比，令人鼓舞的是，SPNPs 在肿瘤细胞的模拟循环系统和 3D 肿瘤细胞球体中仍然表现出更强的细胞毒性。对肿瘤细胞更强的毒性表明，作为一种有前途的纳米医学，氧化锌 SPNPs 在杀伤肿瘤细胞方面具有更多优势。
