Exploring the therapeutic potential of tamoxifen conjugated ZnO nanoparticles for cancer treatment

Conventional chemo- and radioactive therapies are unable to control abnormally increasing rate of breast cancer due to their adverse side effects. The current study has developed tamoxifen encapsulated folic acid functionalized ZnO nanoparticles (Txf-ZnO-FA) for targeted breast cancer treatment. The synthesized nanoconjugate characterized via UV-Vis spectroscopy, DLS, FT-IR, SEM-EDX, and XRD and subjected to different biological assays including drug release assay, DPPH assay, protein denaturation, MTT assay, hemolysis assay, and DNA damage assay. The UV-Vis spectra showed sharp peaks at 210 nm and 270 nm while particle size distribution displayed high homogeneity with a polydispersity index (PDI) of 0.28. FT-IR spectra provided distinct broad and sharp peaks while spherical hexagonal, and slightly irregular morphology was confirmed through SEM with excellent elemental composition by EDX and crystalline nature with phase purity of nanoconjugate was assessed by XRD spectrum which exhibited sharp peaks at 2θ values of 32.1°, 33.8°, 38.2°, 46.5°, 57.3°, and 69.8°. Biological assays revealed biocompatible nature of ZnO nano-formulations with 80% and 90% drug release efficacy of ZnO NPs in the presence and absence of proteinase K at pH 5.4, respectively. DPPH assay showed excellent antioxidant potential of Txf-ZnO-FA, protein denaturation assay revealed excellent anti-inflammatory efficacy while maximum cell viability of Txf-ZnO-FA was obtained with IC 50 value 52 µ g/mL. Moreover, significantly low hemolysis rate i.e. 0.84% indicating the non-genotoxic nature of nanoconjugate. These findings have provided clear indication to use ZnO nanoparticles with drug loaded formulation in breast cancer treatment after further in vivo studies and proper clinical trials.