Zirconium doped hydroxyapatite nanoparticle as a potential design for lung cancer therapy

Lung cancer is the most common type of cancer, being the leading cause of death worldwide. Several efforts for the prevention and treatment have been made to suppress the growth of lung cancer. In this context, hydroxyapatite (HAp) nanoparticles have potential to induce apoptosis in cancer cells and, therefore, can be used for the treatment of cancer. The combination of HAp nanoparticles with a drug loader such as zirconium (Zr) is expected to improve the efficacy of HAp nanoparticles in lung cancer treatment. In this study, Zr doped hydroxyapatite (HAp-Zr) nanoparticles were designed for lung cancer therapy. HAp-Zr nanoparticles were prepared by doping the HAp nanoparticles with Zr. The cytotoxic assay to the cancer cell of HAp-Zr nanoparticles was determined in the lung cancer cell line A549. The nanoparticles were labeled using Scandium-46 radioisotope ([46Sc]Sc-HAp-Zr) to evaluate the cellular uptake and biodistribution studies. The results showed that the [46Sc]Sc-HAp-Zr nanoparticles were accumulated in the lung cancer cell line A549, and Zr doped increased the cellular internalization. The cytotoxic assay showed that the IC50 value of the HAp-Zr nanoparticles was 513 μg/mL. In the biodistribution studies on normal mice, the radiolabeled [46Sc]Sc-HAp-Zr showed a high accumulation in the liver as an excreted organ and in the lungs as the target organ. Taken together, these findings suggest that HAp-Zr nanoparticles have the potential to be used as drug candidate for the treatment of lung cancer.