Ultrasonic-assisted hydrothermal fabrication of selenium nanorods and their anticancer properties in prostate cancer cells and associated signaling pathway

This paper describes some useful information on the ultrasonic-assisted hydrothermal fabrication of selenium nanorods (abbreviated as SeNRs) and their potential anticancer activity. The synthesis of SeNRs was confirmed and their selective anticancer activity against DU-145 cells as a standard prostate cancer cell line and human prostate normal cell line, RWPE-1 were assessed. The result of the FTIR study revealed the bending and stretching vibration of the Se-O bond. UV–vis spectroscopy data displayed a sharp maximum absorption (λmax) peak at 298 nm and the TEM image demonstrated that Se nanostructures had a rod-shaped morphology with lengths ranging from 50 to 100 nm and a diameter of around 10 nm. DLS data displayed that SeNRs had an average size of 204.68 nm and a zeta potential value of – 37.29 mV. Then, IC50 concentration of SeNRs against DU-145 and RWPE-1 cell lines were calculated to be about 15 µg/mL and 50.06 µg/mL, respectively, at 24 h. Also, it was deduced that SeNRs triggered their anticancer activity through the induction of membrane leakage, oxidative stress, apoptosis by overexpression of Bax/Bcl-2 ratio and caspase-9,-8, -3, and downexpression of AKT, PI3K, and mTOR mRNA and proteins, which was further verified by pre-incubation of cells with PI3K inhibitor, LY294002. Thus, the synthesized SeNRs can be used and developed as an effective nanostructure for the treatment of prostate cancer in future studies.