Cytotoxic Potential of Biosynthesized Silver Nanoparticles

Abstract

Biosynthesized nanoparticles are gaining attention because of biologically
active plant secondary metabolites that help in green synthesis and also due to
their unique biological applications. The present study was designed to
investigate the cytotoxic activity of the Cucumis melo (L) fruit against HepG2
cell lines. Biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using the aqueous extract of
Cucumis melo fruit (SNPs-AECMF) was prepared and it was confirmed and
characterized through various techniques like UV-visible spectroscopy,
Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy
(EDAX) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. The cytotoxic activity for cancer
cell lines was evaluated by MTT assay. The in vitro cytotoxicity of different
concentrations (3.25 - 50μg/mL) of the silver nanoparticles of Cucumis melo fruit
was evaluated by the MTT assay. The IC50 value is measured by the
concentration of extract causing 50% growth inhibition of cancer cells. The
results indicated that the cytotoxic effect of the silver nanoparticles of Cucumis
melo fruit against HepG2 cells is dose dependent. At low concentrations the
extract was found to be less toxic towards the HepG2 cells, whereas at higher
concentrations the toxicity was increased. The concentration at 42.59 μg / ml
was found to be an effective dose because at this concentration, it exhibited 50
% cytotoxicity against HepG2 cells. This work revealed the potentials of silver
nanoparticles of Cucumis melo fruit as a cytotoxic agent against liver cancer cell
lines. The plant can be further screened against various diseases using toxicity
models in order to find out its unexplored efficacy.