Biological therapeutics of AgO nanoparticles against pathogenic bacteria and A549 lung cancer cells

Abstract

Sutherlandia frutescence (Sf) is a plant known to be rich in biological properties thus having been used in the treatment of various ailments. In this study, Sf AgO nanoparticles were synthesised by the solvothermal method via the green synthetic route using Sf plant extract for the enhancement and incorporation of biological properties in our material. The synthesis, characterization and biomedical tests such as antimicrobial, antioxidant and anticancer were investigated. TEM, SEM and EDS showing a spherical morphology that has an avarage particle size distribution of 10 nm with silver and oxygen peaks dominating which confirmed the formation of the Sf AgO nanoparticles. In addition, XRD corroborated the formation via phase identification and FTIR analysis verified the functional groups from the Sf plant extract as phytochemicals, which were indeed incorporated on the Sf AgO material. The antibacterial activity was also investigated using plate count method showin that Sf AgO nanoparticles were potent against gram-negative and gram-positive strains using model pollutants (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Enterobacter faecalis). Antibacterial activity of natural pollutants from 4 water types (pond, tap, river and sewage water) were also evaluated. In addition, antioxidant activity was evaluated using DPPH as a control and the radical scavenging activity for both the Sf AgO and pure AgO were 56 and 78 respectively at 100 ?g/mL. The anticancer activity of Sf AgO nanoparticles was investigated against human alveolar epithelial lung cancer cell line (A549). The results showed the nanoparticles were active and concentration dependent. Lastly, only 4% of the viable cells were counted for after treatment with the highest concentration and early apoptotic cell death was identified. a#13; a#13;