Hepatocellular carcinoma is a serious illness with a high rate of mortality. A high dose of theranostic drugs with efficient diagnostic and therapeutic capabilities should be required. Chemo-photothermal therapy is presently recognized as a secure method of cancer treatment that specifically targets tumour tissue or cells. Additionally, the success of cancer therapy is increased by the use of targeted nanoparticles. The current study aims to investigate the interaction between phototherapy and the anti-hepatocellular carcinoma treatment combination HA-GEM-MoS2/ZnO nanocomposites (NCs) loaded with gemcitabine and molybdenum disulphide. NCs were synthesized and characterized using FT-IR, XRD, TEM, and DLS analyses. The present investigation shows that the synthesized HA-MoS2/ZnO nanocomposites were elongated spherical in shape and their sizes ranged from 62.3 to 75.7 nm according to the estimation using XRD results, which is consistent with TEM findings. Further, HA-MoS2/ZnO nanocomposites could effectively encapsulate the GEM, showing dual pH and thermal triggered drug release behaviour. The result of cell uptake tests clearly demonstrated improved cellular uptake of synthesized nanocomposites following HA and GEM-loaded NCs in hepatocellular carcinoma cell lines. In addition, combination therapies caused the highest incidence of cell death in hepatocellular carcinoma, according to cytotoxicity experiments and showed a good compatibility. In vitro studies prove that HA-GEM-MoS2/ZnO nanocomposites enhanced tumour treatment that combines chemotherapy and photothermal therapy to remove the tumour and prevent relapses. Still, no studies have been done to see if gemcitabine-encapsulated HA-MoS2/ZnO NCs inhibit human hepatocellular carcinoma cell. Hence, the current study can give a new paradigm for the diagnosis and treatment of cancer and the outcome may be helpful to improve the quality of cancer patient's life.
Keywords: Chemo-photothermal therapy; Gemcitabine; Hepatocellular carcinoma; Hyaluronic acid; MoS2/ZnO nanocomposites.
© 2023. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.