An investigation on the cytotoxicity and caspase-mediated apoptotic effect of biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles using Podophyllum hexandrum on human cervical carcinoma cells

Now-a-days synthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) through biological entity is quite interesting to employ AgNPs for various biomedical applications in general and treatment of cancer in particular. This paper presents the green synthesis of AgNPs using leaf extract of Podophyllum hexandrum Royle and optimized with various parameters such as pH, temperature, reaction time, volume of extract and metal ion concentration for synthesis of AgNPs. TEM, XRD and FTIR were adopted for characterization. The synthesized nanoparticles were found to be spherical shaped with average size of 14 nm. Effects of AgNPs were analyzed against human cervical carcinoma cells by MTT Assay, quantification of ROS, RT-PCR and western blotting techniques. The overall result indicates that AgNPs can selectively inhibit the cellular mechanism of HeLa by DNA damage and caspase mediated cell death. This biological procedure for synthesis of AgNPs and selective inhibition of cancerous cells gives an alternative avenue to treat human cancer effectively.

This paper was originally published in Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces (2013) 120, 708-717.