Structural, optical characteristics and Anti-Cancer effect of Cd0.99Ni0.01O nanoparticles on human neuroblastoma and cervical cancer cell lines

•Cd0.99Ni0.01O nanoparticles are obtained from the co-precipitated method.•The structural parameters were calculated from the MAUD program.•The optical properties show the different optical characteristics of Cd0.99Ni0.01O nanoparticles with 2.06 eV energy gab.•The cytotoxicity of Cd0.99Ni0.01O on the previous cancer cell lines resulted in inhibition of cell growth estimated by MTT assay.•The exposure of IMR-32 and HeLa cancer cells to Cd0.99Ni0.01O verified a potential apoptotic activity by significant up-regulation of p53 gene expression.•The anticancer activity was tested by down-regulation of platelet-derived growth factor receptor beta (PDGFR-β) gene expression.