The study was designed to evaluate the effect of varying concentrations of ion-carriers on the synthesis of zinc oxide nano-particles (ZONs). We also evaluated the anti-proliferative activity, morphological changes, ROS generation, nuclear apoptosis and caspase-3 activity of two ZONs samples in human skin cancer cell line A431. The XRD analysis of both samples confirmed the crystallinity and pure nature of ZONs. SEM analysis showed spider chrysanthemum-like shape, while the TEM data determined the diameter size of nanostructures as 40 nm (ZON-1) and <20 nm (ZON-2). UV-visible spectroscopy depicted characteristic ZnO band with higher intensity and minor shift in λ_max recorded for ZON-2. The anti-proliferative assay showed that ZON-2 exhibited more cytotoxic effect than ZON-1. The IC₅₀ value of ZON-1 and ZON-2 was obtained as 24.5 and 15.1 µM, respectively. ROS generation in terms of percentage of fluorescence intensity was found to be greater in ZON-2 treated cells as compared to ZON-1 treated cells. The fluorescent nuclear dye DAPI revealed more fragmented apoptotic cells in ZON-2 treated A431 cells, while ZONs induced activity of executioner caspase-3. This study demonstrates that the smaller sized ZONs showed pronounced cytotoxicity against A431cell line, signifying that the ZON-2 could play a potential role in nano-drug delivery.

该研究旨在评估不同浓度的离子载体对氧化锌纳米粒子（ZONs）合成的影响。我们还评估了人类皮肤癌细胞系A431中两个ZON样品的抗增殖活性，形态变化，ROS生成，核凋亡和caspase-3活性。两种样品的XRD分析都证实了ZON的结晶性和纯净性。SEM分析显示蜘蛛状的形状，而TEM数据确定纳米结构的直径大小为40  nm（ZON-1）和<20  nm（ZON-2）。紫外可见光谱描绘了具有较高强度的ZnO谱带，并记录了ZON-2的_λmax的微小变化。抗增殖试验表明，ZON-2比ZON-1表现出更多的细胞毒性作用。集成电路ZON-1和ZON-2的₅₀值 分别为24.5和15.1 µM。发现与ZON-1处理的细胞相比，在ZON-2处理的细胞中以荧光强度百分比表示的ROS产生更大。荧光核染料DAPI揭示了在ZON-2处理的A431细胞中更多的凋亡细胞碎片，而ZONs诱导了execution子胱天蛋白酶3的活性。这项研究表明，较小尺寸的ZON对A431细胞株显示出明显的细胞毒性，这表明ZON-2可能在纳米药物递送中发挥潜在作用。