Fig. 5

A Combination treatment of CCD-18Co fibroblast-like, healthy colorectal cells and HT-29 CRC malignant cells cell cultures with L-ZnO or YSA-L-ZnO NPs and acoustic stimulation. Cells were seeded, left untreated or treated with L-ZnO or YSA-L-ZnO, at two different concentrations (30 and 50 µg/mL). After 24, 48 and 72 h, they were left untreated or subjected to a multiple shock wave Energy level E6, 0.22 mJ/mm². After 96 h from the NPs administration, cell viability was assessed. Data are expressed as normalized percentage with respect to the control sample, which was considered 100% viable. *p < 0.0332, **p < 0.0021, ***p < 0.0002, ****p < 0.0001. B Results of the synergy scores calculation of combination treatments, performed with SynergyFinder⁺ (SynergyFinder—a FAIR tool for drug combination discovery) and visualized through synergy heatmaps on CCD-18Co and HT-29