Conventional cancer therapies possess a plethora of limitations which led to the awakening of nanotechnology and nanomedicine. However, technological success is widely dependent on complete understanding of the complexity and heterogeneity of tumor biology on one hand and nanobiointeractions associated with challenges of synthesis, translation, and commercialization on the other. The present study therefore deals with one such targeted approach aiming at synthesizing, characterizing, and understanding the efficacy of molybdenum oxide nanoparticles. The phase structure, morphology, and elemental composition of the synthesized nanoparticles were characterized using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. The cytotoxicity studies revealed that the IC50 vales of molybdenum trioxide (MoO3) particles against skin cancer cells (melanoma and non-melanoma) were around 200-300 μg. The nanoparticles were found to induce mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis driven by the apoptotic genes such as BAX and Bcl2. Molybdenum being a cofactor for the majority of metabolic enzymes could have triggered the selective internalization of the nanoparticles which in turn could have modified the granularity of the cytoplasm and subsequently lead to mitochondrial-mediated apoptosis. Further, the anti-angiogenic property of MoO3 nanoparticles was corroborated using Chick chorioallantoic membrane (CAM) assay and aortic ring assay. Taken together , unraveling the role of MoO3 nanoparticles in cancer and angiogenesis opens up venues for nano biological intervention of selective cancer cell targeting with minimal damage to the normal cells using natural trace elements that are generally known to influence various metabolic enzymes.
Keywords: Cancer; Metal oxide; Molybdenum; Nanoparticle; Trace elements.