Inhibitory effect of zinc oxide nanorod arrays on breast cancer cells profiled through real-time cytokines screening by a single-cell microfluidic platform (3/2023)

In this article number 10.1002/bmm2.12040, Ping Li, Chao Wang and their co-workers systematically studied the inhibitory effects of zinc oxide nanorods (ZnO NRs) on breast cancer cells. They found that the ZnO NRs inhibited the migration and growth of cell populations, as well as suppressed the secretion of multiple cytokines through a microfluidic platform. Subsequently, they utilized a single-cell chip to explore the cell heterogeneity before and after the inhibition. Based on the different behaviors exhibited by the cells, they reclassified cell clusters and ultimately discovered that ZnO NRs had a weaker inhibitory effect on highly invasive and metastatic cell populations. This offers a reasonable risk analysis for the potential application of ZnO NRs in cancer therapy.