Investigation of cytotoxicity properties of zinc oxide nanoparticles in spherical and rod shaped on leukemia cells

In this study, we reported a method to associate doxorubicin drug on folic acid functionalized SiO2/ZnO nanoparticles (NPs) in rod and spherical shapes. The clinical usage of the anticancer drug, doxorubicin (DOX), is limited by severe side effects and cell resistance. Targeted drug delivery by binding DOX to nanoparticles could overcome these limitations. The surface functionalization of the ZnO nanoparticles with silica and folic acid (FA) was confirmed by fourier transform infra-red spectra (FTIR) and Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy. Drug is bound to the nanoparticle surface through electrostatic interactions. The potential of as-prepared anticancer drug loaded nanoparticles against the leukemia cancer cells, K562, was evaluated using the MTT assay and its anti tumor efficacy was clearly enhanced compared with free drug. Cell viability reached nearly 21% and 25% by drug loaded nanoparticles, whereas DOX itself led to only 40% viability at a concentration of 5 mg/ml. Moreover, the results showed that the rod- shaped particles have better cytotoxicity against leukemia cells than spherical particles because of their samller sizes.