Green Synthesis of Pectin-Gold-PLA-PEG-PLA Nanoconjugates: <i>In Vitro</i> Cytotoxicity and Anti-Inflammatory Activity

Abstract

The gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have been synthesized by a green chemical approach using the biopolymer pectin which is isolated from the orange peel. The pectin-AuNPs nanoconjugates are attached on the PLA-PEG-PLA triblock copolymer matrix by the ultra-sonication induced water-in-oil (W/O) emulsion method. The pectin-AuNPs-PLA-PEG-PLA nanoconjugates are characterized by UV-Visible absorption spectroscopy, X-Ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), selected area electron diffraction (SAED), energy dispersive X-Ray spectroscopy (EDS) and X-Ray photo electron spectroscopy (XPS). The XPS results confirm the zero oxidation state of Au, while the TEM images confirm the spherical shape of 7–13 nm of AuNPs. The XRD analysis reveals that the AuNPs exhibit fcc crystal structure with an average crystallite size of 12 nm. The biocompatibility of the pectin-AuNPs-PLA-PEG-PLA nanoconjugates has been investigated by the In Vitro cell line study on South African green monkey’s kidney cells. The anti-inflammatory activity of the nanoconjugates has been established by the membrane stabilization and inhibition of protein denaturation methods. The pectin-AuNPs-PLA-PEG-PLA nanoconjugates exhibit better anti-inflammatory activity than pectin and pectin-AuNPs.