RETRACTED: Two new Cu(II) coordination polymer nanostructures induce human oral squamous cell carcinoma apoptotic cell death in vitro and in vivo

Abstract

Abstract In this contribution, we characterized and synthesized two three-dimensional Cu(II) involving coordination polymers {[Cu(L1)](H2O)1}n (1·H2O) and {[Cu4Li(L2)2(μ3-OH)2(H2O)2](NO3)(H2O)(DMA)2}n (2, DMA = N,N-dimethylacetamide) along with their nanoparticles based on two pyridine-carboxylate ligands 5-(3′,5′-dicarboxylphenyl)nicotic acid (H3L2) as well as 3,3’-(pyridine-3,5-diyl)dibenzoic acid (H2L1) by utilizing solvothermal and sonochemical approaches. In addition, we reported the important role of nanoparticles 1–2 (denoted as 1 NPs and 2 NPs hereafter) on the treatment of human cancer in vivo and in vitro. Through Cell Counting Kit-8 (CCK8) assay, we determined the cell proliferation and cell viability of human oral squamous cell carcinoma cell line (HSC-4). This result cleared that nanoparticles 1 showed a higher anti-cancer activity on HSC-4 cancer cells compared with nanoparticle 2. The reactive oxygen species detection and the Annexin V-FITC/PI assay manifested that nanoparticle 1 could significantly enhance the apoptotic cells numbers via increasing the intracellular ROS accumulation. The in vivo treatment experiment also convinced that nanoparticle 1 reduced the tumor volume and then increase the weight of the mice.