Gallium-doped zinc oxide nanoparticles as biocompatible and promising nanocarrier for delivery of anticancer drug Adrucil

Adrucil is a chemotherapy drug commonly used in various types of cancers, including lung cancer. However, it may have some side effects on the respiratory system and other tissues. Therefore, delivery of this drug on a suitable nanocarrier can reduce daily dose and diminishes its side effects on the respiratory system. In this work, Ga-doped ZnO nanoparticles are prepared via sedimentation method and specified by some analytical techniques. Then, Adrucil molecules are loaded onto the surface of nanomaterial and loading/release properties are investigated under the in vitro conditions. After that, the electronic sensitivity and effectiveness of Ga-doped ZnO nanocluster bearing Adrucil were investigated theoretically with the B3LYP/wB97XD density functional theory (DFT) according to Lanl2DZ basis set. Furthermore, an MTT experiment was planned to investigate cytocompatibility of drug-loaded material on the lung cancer cells A549. This study confirmed that the drug-loaded material has a higher antiproliferative activity compared to free drug against A549 cancer cells.Graphical abstractGa-doped ZnO nanoparticles are synthesized and characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, and FT-IR. Then, the prepared nanomaterial was utilized for loading of Adrucil. The results indicated that the performed nanomaterial encapsulated with Adrucil may act as an efficient anticancer drug delivery carrier. The calculated geometrical parameters and electronic properties indicated that the Ga-doped Zn12O12 represent higher sensitivity to Adrucil compared to the pristine ZnO nanocluster.

Automated summary

In this study, Ga-doped ZnO nanoparticles were used as a nanocarrier for loading Adrucil drug, and their release properties were investigated in vitro. The results confirmed that Ga-doped ZnO nanocluster loaded with Adrucil had higher antiproliferative activity. This research provides an efficient drug delivery system for lung cancer treatment.