In Vitro Antimicrobial and Anticancer Peculiarities of Ytterbium and Cerium Co-Doped Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles

Simple Summary Nanotechnology is an emerging interdisciplinary research field that brings together materials science, engineering, chemistry, biology, and medicine. There is no doubt that nanomedicine has an amazing potential for early detection, optimal diagnosis, and personalized cancer treatment. In recent years, nanoparticles have been widely used in biomedical applications, and among the metal oxides nanomaterials, zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles have shown unique physical and chemical properties. Furthermore, ZnO is less toxic and cheaper, making it a suitable candidate for drug delivery, bioimaging, wound healing, antimicrobial applications, and cancer treatment. The ZnO-doped nanomaterials showed unprecedented properties with respect to their pure material counterparts. In the present work, we propose to study the anticancer and antimicrobial activities of ZnO doped with the rare earth elements Yb and Ce. We found that samples doped with x = 0.01 and x = 0.05 of Yb and Ce showed a better inhibitory effect on HCT-116 cancer cells than unadded ZnO (x = 0.00). In addition, the treatment of nanoparticles doped with Ce and Yb induced apoptosis in HCT-116 cells. In summary, our results demonstrated that the synthesized nanoparticles showed antifungal, antibacterial and anticancer potential, which could be considered for potential pharmaceutical applications. Abstract Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) are a promising platform for their use in biomedical research, especially given their anticancer and antimicrobial activities. This work presents the synthesis of ZnO NPs doped with different amounts of rare-earth ions of ytterbium (Yb) and cerium (Ce) and the assessment of their anticancer and antimicrobial activities. The structural investigations indicated a hexagonal wurtzite structure for all prepared NPs. The particle size was reduced by raising the amount of Ce and Yb in ZnO. The anticancer capabilities of the samples were examined by the cell viability MTT assay. Post 48-h treatment showed a reduction in the cancer cell viability, which was x = 0.00 (68%), x = 0.01 (58.70%), x = 0.03 (80.94%) and x = 0.05 (64.91%), respectively. We found that samples doped with x = 0.01 and x = 0.05 of Yb and Ce showed a better inhibitory effect on HCT-116 cancer cells than unadded ZnO (x = 0.00). The IC50 for HCT-116 cells of Ce and Yb co-doped ZnO nanoparticles was calculated and the IC50 values were x = 0.01 (3.50 µg/mL), x = 0.05 (8.25 µg/mL), x = 0.00 (11.75 µg/mL), and x = 0.03 (21.50 µg/mL). The treatment-doped ZnO NPs caused apoptotic cell death in the HCT-116 cells. The nanoparticles showed inhibitory action on both C. albicans and E. coli. It can be concluded that doping ZnO NPs with Yb and Ce improves their apoptotic effects on cancer and microbial cells.