The therapeutic efficacy of silver loaded rhenium disulfide nanoparticles as a photothermal agent for cancer eradication

Abstract

Cancer is a life-threatening disease when it is diagnosed at a late stage or treatment procedures fail. Inhibiting cancer cells in the tumor environment is a significant challenge for anticancer therapy. The photothermal effects of nanomaterials are being studied as a new cancer treatment. In this work, rhenium disulfide (ReS2) nanosheets were made by liquid exfoliation with gum arabic (GA) and coated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) to produce reactive oxygen species that destroy cancer cells. The synthesized AgNP-GA-ReS2 NPs were characterized using UV, DLS, SEM, TEM, and photothermal studies. According to the DLS findings, the NPs were about 216 nm in size and had a zeta potential of 76 mV. The TEM and SEM analyses revealed that the GA-ReS2 formed single-layered nanosheets on which the AgNPs were distributed. The photothermal effects of the AgNP-GA-ReS2 NPs at 50 μg/mL were tested with an 808 nm laser at 1.2 W cm−2, and they reached 55.8 °C after 5 min of laser irradiation. MBA-MB-231 cells were used to test the cytotoxicity of the newly designed AgNP-GA-ReS2 NPs with and without laser irradiation for 5 min. At 50 μg/mL, the AgNP-GA-ReS2 showed cytotoxicity, which was confirmed with calcein and EtBr staining. The DCFH-DA and flow cytometry analyses demonstrated that AgNP-GA-ReS2 nanosheets under NIR irradiation generated ROS with high anticancer activity, in addition to the photothermal effects.