Harnessing the cancer radiation therapy by lanthanide-doped zinc oxide-based theranostic nanoparticles

In this paper, a significant cell death using novel X-Ray sensitive Gadolinium and Europium doped Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles (NPs) has been reported. Herein, doping of Gadolinium and europium as high-Z elements into the ZnO NPs was designed to optimize restricted energy absorption from a conventional radiation therapy by X-Ray. In this experiment, Gd/Eu-doped ZnO NPs were synthesized with chemical precipitation method with a size of 9 nm. Cytotoxic effects of Eu/Gd-doped ZnO NPs were determined using MTT assay in L929, HeLa and PC3 cell lines, under dark conditions as well as exposure to UV, X-ray and Gamma radiation. X-Radiation enhancement by doped NPs occurred at 20 µg/ml concentration under a dose of 2 Gy, a performance equal to untreated cells under 6 Gy X-radiation. It is worth noting that the doped NPs may be used as a photo inducer to increase efficacy of X-rays within the cells, consequently, cancer cell death. The doped NPs also could reduce the received dose by normal cells around the tumor. Additionally, we analyzed the diagnostic efficacy of doped nanoparticles using a simple and versatile methodology to develop CT/MRI dual modality nanoprobes. Results showed an efficient theranostic nanoparticulate system for simultaneous CT/MR imaging and treatment.