Ultrasonic-assisted hydrothermal fabrication of selenium nanorods and their anticancer properties in prostate cancer cells and associated signaling pathway

This paper describes some useful information on the ultrasonic-assisted hydrothermal fabrication of selenium nanorods (abbreviated as SeNRs) and their potential anticancer activity. The synthesis of SeNRs was confirmed by the utilization of different analyses. Then, the selective anticancer activity and apoptotic induction of SeNRs against DU-145 cells as a standard prostate cancer cell line and human prostate normal cell line, RWPE-1 were assessed. The result of the FTIR study revealed the bending and stretching vibration of the Se-O bond. The result of UV–vis spectroscopy displayed a sharp maximum absorption (λmax) peak at 298 nm and the TEM image demonstrated that Se nanostructures had a rod-shaped morphology with lengths ranging from 50 to 100 nm and a diameter of around 10 nm. DLS data displayed that SeNRs had an average size of 204.68 nm and a zeta potential value of – 37.29 mV. The outcomes of assessing the anticancer activity of SeNRs against DU-145 and RWPE-1 cell lines were calculated to be about 15 µg/mL and 50.06 µg/mL, respectively, at 24 h. Also, it was deduced that SeNRs triggered their anticancer activity through the induction of membrane leakage, oxidative stress, apoptosis by overexpression of Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and caspase-9,-8, -3, and downexpression of AKT, PI3K, and mTOR mRNA and proteins, which was further verified by pre-incubation of cells with PI3K inhibitor, LY294002. Thus, the synthesized SeNRs can be used and developed as an effective nanostructure for the treatment of prostate cancer in future studies.