Abstract:

Background and Aims: Cancer is a widespread disease responsible for the death of millions every year. Different approaches and drugs are in use to treat cancer, however, there is a need for new drugs with low cost, high activity, and low side effect risks. Nanotechnology and nanomaterials are important to develop those drugs. Copper-based nanoparticles (NPs) are shown to have biological activity as the antibacterial, and cytotoxic potential. Copper (II) oxide (CuO) NPs are widely used among Cu-based NPs. Different studies evaluated its anticancer and cytotoxic activity; however, the results are still controversial. Methods: It was planned to characterize the NPs using Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) in cell culture medium and distilled water and then to evaluate their cytotoxicity in human cervical cancer cells (HeLa) using MTT (3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5 diphenyl tetrazolium bromide) assay and neutral red uptake (NRU) assays. As one of the cytotoxicity mechanisms, the DNA damage induction potential was evaluated by Comet assay. Results: The CuO NPs have an average diameter of about 35 nm in distilled water and 39 nm in cell culture medium. The IC50 levels of NPs were 10.7 µg/mL and 6.73 µg/mL by MTT and NRU assays, respectively. The results reveal the NPs dosedependently increased in the DNA damage. The tail moment was 1.3-fold at 3.125 µg/mL, 2.5-fold at 6.25 µg/mL, and 3.8-fold at 12.5 µg/mL. Conclusion: CuO NPs have high cytotoxic activity in HeLa cancerous cells. The induction of DNA damage could be an important step in the induction of cell death. Further in vivo and in vitro studies in need to improve the safety/low toxicity and understand the molecular mechanism of CuO-induced activity.

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