Colchicine-capped ZnO nanoparticles: Elucidation of their cytotoxicity potential against MDA-MB 231 cancer cells

The present study is the pioneer study that aimed to prepare zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) with colchicine as the reducing and capping agent. Colchicine-loaded ZnO-NPs (CHZnO-NPs) were prepared by adding colchicine to the zinc sulfate heptahydrate solution. The formulation was then characterized to determine the morphology, size, crystallinity, elemental composition and vibrational properties of the CHZnO-NPs. Upon characterization, CHZnO-NPs were studied for their cytotoxic effect against the breast cancer cell line (MDA-MB-231). The successful biosynthesis of CHZnO-NPs was initially confirmed visually by the changes in the mixture color, from light-yellow to white cloudy. The best CHZnO-NPs formulation selected was F3, which possessed 10mg/mL of colchicine. Formulation (F3) had the smallest mean particle diameter of 43.62nm and the lowest zeta potential of -19.60mV. It also had 92.21±0.012% encapsulation efficiency and 20.86±0.005% drug loading. Formulation (F3) displayed a hexagonal wurtzite structure with irregular morphology. The observation of colchicine peaks on the FTIR spectra of F3 proved the role of colchicine as a reducing and capping agent during the synthesis of ZnO-NPs. Besides, the in-vitro cell cytotoxicity study on the MDA-MB-231 cell line revealed a significant reduction in cell proliferation at the concentration of 25μg of colchicine and F3. Further, studies on the cellular migration potential also demonstrated concentration-dependent activity. Overall, CHZnO-NPs were shown to be successfully synthesized via an environmental-friendly procedure and colchicine acted as a capping agent to regulate the material's size, aggregation, and particle size in addition to its anticancer properties.