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This review evaluates mechanisms, benefits, and limitations of ZnO NPs for lung cancer, highlighting reactive oxygen species generation, disruption of cellular redox balance, and apoptosis. It also describes mitochondrial damage, caspase activation, Bax/Bcl-2 changes, and G2/M cell-cycle arrest. Selectivity is linked to EPR and electrostatic affinity, while clinical translation depends on resolving biocompatibility, long-term toxicity, and in vivo stability.",{"@graph":69,"@context":122},[70,84,105],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":40,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/research-report/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/evaluating-the-mechanisms-and-therapeutic-potential-of-zno-nanoparticles-as-selective-anticancer-agents-for-lung-malignancies/345436/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/evaluating-the-mechanisms-and-therapeutic-potential-of-zno-nanoparticles-as-selective-anticancer-agents-for-lung-malignancies/345436.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"Theodore","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-09-23","2026-09-22",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":81},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",{"@type":106,"mainEntity":107},"FAQPage",[108,114,118],{"name":109,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":111},"What is the main antitumor mechanism of ZnO nanoparticles in lung cancer?","Question",{"text":112,"@type":113},"The primary mechanism is generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which disrupts cellular redox balance and induces apoptosis.","Answer",{"name":115,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":116},"How do ZnO nanoparticles cause apoptosis according to the review?",{"text":117,"@type":113},"They trigger apoptosis by compromising mitochondrial integrity, activating caspase cascades, and altering Bax and Bcl-2 protein expression.",{"name":119,"@type":110,"acceptedAnswer":120},"How is selectivity toward cancer cells achieved?",{"text":121,"@type":113},"Selectivity is described as resulting from enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) and electrostatic affinity, where positive surface charge at physiological pH promotes binding to anionic cancer cell membranes.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":124,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":126,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":128,"site_id":62},345436,1790096856,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":131},{"doc_id":128,"user_id":132,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":133,"doc_module":4,"category_id":39,"category_name":40,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":81,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":46,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":31},7971461740886,"https://ap-avatar.wpscdn.com/davatar_3d24733baf745e90a7e4bdd5f77d97b2","Nsairat etal. Discover Nano (2026) 21:215 Discover Nano  \n[https://doi.org/10.1186/s11671-026-04618-2](https://doi.org/10.1186/s11671-026-04618-2)  \nREVIEW Open Access  \nEvaluating the mechanisms and therapeutic potential of ZnO nanoparticles as selective anticancer agents for lung malignancies  \nHamdi Nsairat 1, Waleed K. Abdulsahib2*, S. Renuka Jyothi3, Priya Priyadarshini Nayak4, Ashish Singh Chauhan5, Siya Singla6, Fadhil Faez Sead7,8 and Djamila Polatova9  \n*Correspondence: Waleed K. Abdulsahib  \nwaleedk. abdulsahib@uoalfarahidi. [edu.iq](edu.iq)  \nFull list of author information is available at the end of the article  \nAbstract  \nLung cancer's high mortality necessitates refined, targeted therapeutic interventions. Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) have emerged as promising anticancer agents owing to their distinctive physicochemical characteristics, particularly their pHdependent solubility, and their preferential toxicity toward malignant cells. This review critically examines the mechanisms, advantages, and limitations of ZnO NPsas a novel therapeutic strategy for lung cancer. The primary antitumor mechanism involves the generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which disrupts the cellular redox balance and induces apoptosis. ZnO NPs are shown to trigger apoptosis by compromising mitochondrial integrity, activating caspase cascades, and altering the expression of Bax and Bcl-2 proteins. Furthermore, they impede cancer cell growth by enforcing a G2/M cell cycle arrest. Selectivity is achieved via the enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) effect and electrostatic affinity, wherein their positive surface charge (at physiological pH) promotes binding to anionic cancer cell membranes. Despite these advantages, significant challenges in biocompatibility, long-term toxicity, and in vivo stability must be addressed to facilitate clinical translation. This review underscores the critical need for further research to unlock the full therapeutic potential of ZnO NPs.  \nKeywords Zinc oxide nanoparticles, Lung cancer, Non-small cell lung cancer  \n1 Introduction  \nAs one of the foremost causes of cancer mortality worldwide, lung cancer is attributed to approximately 1.8 million deaths annually [1–3]. The latest global data (2022 estimates) underscore the scale of this challenge, with lung cancer accounting for 12.4% of all new cancer diagnoses and 18.7% of all cancer-related deaths [4](Fig. 1). As illustrated in Fig. 1, lung cancer is unique in its global impact, leading all other cancers in both new diagnoses (2.5 million cases) and mortality (1.8 million deaths).  \nDespite considerable progress in surgical procedures and treatments such as chemotherapy and immunotherapy, the prognosis for patients—particularly those at an  \n© The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, which permits any non-commercial use, sharing, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if you modified the licensed material. You do not have permission under this licence to share adapted material derived from this article or parts of it. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit [http://creativecommons.org/l](http://creativecommons.org/l)icenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/.  \nNsairat et al. Discover Nano (2026) 21:215 Page 2 of 20  \nFig. 1 Global lung cancer epidemiology in 2022. This infographic summarizes worldwide ","cbCaihBNCs0eZe9i","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaihBNCs0eZe9i","pdf",2190623,"English","# Abstract\n# Keywords\n# 1 Introduction","[{\"question\":\"What is the main antitumor mechanism of ZnO nanoparticles in lung cancer?\",\"answer\":\"The primary mechanism is generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), which disrupts cellular redox balance and induces apoptosis.\"},{\"question\":\"How do ZnO nanoparticles cause apoptosis according to the review?\",\"answer\":\"They trigger apoptosis by compromising mitochondrial integrity, activating caspase cascades, and altering Bax and Bcl-2 protein expression.\"},{\"question\":\"How is selectivity toward cancer cells achieved?\",\"answer\":\"Selectivity is described as resulting from enhanced permeation and retention (EPR) and electrostatic affinity, where positive surface charge at physiological pH promotes binding to anionic cancer cell membranes.\"}]","Evaluating the mechanisms and therapeutic potential of ZnO nanoparticles as selective anticancer agents for lung malignancies | PDF",1790057677]