Fig. 4
Safety, efficiency and mechanism of EDT. a Cytotoxicity of NGs and SCNGs by CCK8 assays after incubated with HepG2 cells for 24 h with the concentration of 1 μg mL-1 to 500 μg mL-1. NGs exhibited no significant effect on the cell survival, while SCNGs had increased cytotoxicity to HepG2 cells with the increase of concentration. Data are presented as mean ± s.d. (n = 3). b Cytotoxicity of NGs and SCNGs by CCK8 assays after incubated with HL-7702 cells for 24 h with the concentration of 1 μg mL-1 to 500 μg mL−1. Both NGs and SCNGs exhibited no significant effect on the cell survival. Data are presented as mean ± s.d. (n = 3). c The flow cytometry results of the apoptosis of HepG2 cells staining with Annexin V-FITC/PI after incubated with NGs and SCNGs at the IC50 value for 24 h (left), and the corresponding data analysis (right). The enhanced apoptosis promoted by SCNGs confirms the significant effect in cancer-cell killing of SCNGs. Data are presented as mean ± s.d. (n = 3). p values were analyzed by Student’s two-sided t-test (**P ≤ 0.01, n.s. represents no significant differences). d Time-dependent CLSM images (top) and corresponding flow-cytometry analysis (bottom) of HepG2 cells treated with NGs and SCNGs at the IC50 value for 24 h using carboxy-H2DCFDA as a ROS detector (left), and the corresponding data analysis (right). The experiment was conducted three times, and representative results are present. Scale bar, 20 µm. Data are presented as mean ± s.d. (n = 3). p values were analyzed by Student’s two-sided t-test (**P < 0.01, n.s. represents no significant differences). Source data are provided as a Source Data file
