Meticulous Taxifolin Releasing Performance by the Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles: As a Short Road to Drug delivery System for Cancer Therapeutics

Abstract

Zinc oxide nanoparticles have shown promising therapeutic applications in the field of molecular medicine. Taxifolin is a generous flavanonol, and its antioxidant potential is superior to that of other flavonoid compounds owing to its unique structure. However, its low bioavailability is a prime complication for biomedical applications. In the present study we explored the controlled synthesis of biodegradable polymer coated zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO) loaded with taxifolin and evaluation for their loading capacity and drug releasing behavioral properties. The prepared nanomaterials were characterized by using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UV spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction analysis, Dynamic light scattering analysis, zeta potential analyzer and Scanning electron and Transmission electron microscopy. From the scanning electron microscope and DLS analysis it is observed that the size of synthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles ranged between 70 and 80 nm whereas the PEG coated and drug coated particle size were about 80 and 90 nm in diameter respectively. FTIR analysis confirmed that the taxifolin molecules were conjugated with PEG coated zinc oxide nanoparticles. X-ray diffraction pattern confirmed that the zinc oxide nanoparticles exhibited were highly crystalline structure. Taxifolin loaded nanoparticles showed a controlled drug release profile with response to various pH levels. The inhibitory concentrations of synthesized biomaterials were found at 30 µg/ml, 33 µg/ml and 27 µg/ml unloaded, PEG loaded and Taxifolin Loaded ZnO nanoparticles respectively, where as the synthesized materials were did not show any adverse effect on control normal Human Embryonic Kidney Cell (HEK). Furthermore, we found significant synthetic phase arrest at cell cycle analysis in the treated group and following apoptotic cell death were evidenced by AO/EtBr and DAPI fluorescence microscopy analysis. Our findings obviously validate that taxifolin loaded zinc oxide nanoparticles could efficiently deliver the drug of interest, and initiate the apoptotic process in the human breast cancer cells. From this study we can conclude that the taxifolin loaded zinc oxide nanoparticles may have potential applications in the field of anticancer drug development.