Co-adjuvant nano particles for hepatocellular carcinoma radiotherapy treatment

HCC is one of the most life-threatening human cancers in the world. It is considered the major malignant tumor of the liver in adults and is the most common cause of death in people with cirrhosis. Chemotherapy is widely used for HCC treatment, but it has many side effects. Therefore, an alternative, safe method with low side effects, low toxicity, and a higher anti-cancer effect is in demand. In our study, we used Se-NPS alone and combined it with Gamma and UV radiation at different doses. We also used the chemotherapeutic drug sorafenib on Hep G2 cell lines to compare the effect of Se-NPS (with and without radiation) with the sorafenib group. Our results showed that Selenium alone without radiation had a lesser effect on eliminating cancer cells, with high cell viability and fewer apoptotic effects. On the other hand, Selenium combined with radiation, especially at high doses of UV (180 s) and gamma (0.2 Gy), had the highest effect on killing cancer cells. This combination resulted in significantly lower cell viability, high DNA fragmentation, and a high apoptotic effect due to a significant elevation of P53 and cytosolic cytochrome C, which was better than the Radiation-only groups.