Synergistic cytotoxic effect of different sized ZnO nanoparticles and daunorubicin against leukemia cancer cells under UV irradiation

Failure of chemotherapy to the malignant tumor is usually induced by multidrug resistance (MDR). The development of anti-MDR agents for efficient drug delivery is of great importance in cancer therapy. Recent reports have demonstrated that some anticancer drugs could be readily self-assembled on some biocompatible nanomaterials covalently or non-covalently, which could effectively afford the sustained drug delivery for the target cancer cells and reduce the relevant toxicity towards normal cells and tissues. Thus these biocompatible nanomaterials may play an important role in the relevant biological and biomedical system. In this paper, we have explored the cytotoxic effect of anticancer drug daunorubicin on leukemia cancer cells in the absence and presence of different sized ZnO nanoparticles via fluorescence microscopy, UV–Vis absorption spectroscopy, electrochemical analysis as well as MTT assay. Meanwhile, the cytotoxicity suppression of daunorubicin together with different sized ZnO nanoparticles in the absence and presence of UV irradiation on leukemia cancer cells were also investigated using MTT assay. The results indicate that the combination of the different sized ZnO nanoparticles and daunorubicin under UV irradiation could have synergistic cytotoxic effect on leukemia cancer cells, indicating the great potential of ZnO nanoparticles in relevant clinical and biomedical applications.