Nanotechnology and implication in cancer therapy

Zinc oxide nanoparticles represent important platforms for biological and biomedical applications and also as targeted anti-cancer agents. The acute toxicity study was performed on mice to which we administrated intraperitoneal and iv single doses of conditioned zinc oxide nanoparticles. The mice were kept in metabolical cages in order to evaluate the dynamics of the excretory functions (urine, faeces) before sacrification. A histological and immunohistochemical study of the organs harvested was performed in a second phase. In a next phase the nanoparticles will be loaded with cytotoxic agents in order to study their benefit as pharmacological carriers in cancer therapy. We believe that nanomedicine represents an important area in the treatment of cancer and that a better understanding of the mechanisms of action of the morphological and molecular alterations of cells will contribute to the development of new anti-cancer agents.