Cytotoxicity and DNA fragmentation-mediated apoptosis response of hexagonal ZnO nanorods against human prostate cancer cells

Abstract

Current techniques for cancer treatment have some bottlenecks such as poor selectivity, toxicity, low stability. Such drawbacks can be handled with the help of nanotechnology. The use of nanomaterials with specific morphology and properties has shown to be promising anti-cancer agents. In this work, we have successfully synthesized novel long Zinc Oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) with a hexagonal cross-sectional structure. The synthesized NRs were characterized for their morphology architectures using X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The average length of the NRs is observed to be around 30.97 µm and the diameter varied from 300 nm to 1 µm with their aspect ratio (length: diameter, L/D) range 31–103 that could modulate cell death pathways. Further in vitro cytotoxicity studies on prostate cancer PC3 cells and DNA fragmentation mediated apoptosis results confirm that long and hexagonal ZnO NRs can act as a selective anti-cancer agent for prostate cancer cells, whereas low cytotoxic effects on normal prostate epithelial RWPE-1 cells. As evidenced from the results, eco-friendly, nontoxic, and highly efficient ZnO NRs can act as anti-cancer agents, which paves the way for the development of potential therapeutic drugs and further theragnostic applications.