Biosynthesized Silver Nanoparticles for Cancer Therapy and In Vivo Bioimaging

In the current communication, simple, environmentally compatible, non-toxic green chemistry process is used for the development of silver nanoparticles (AgZE) by the reaction between silver nitrate (AgNO₃) and the ethanolic leaf extract of Zinnia elegans (ZE). The optimization of AgZE is carried out using a series of experiments. Various physico-chemical techniques are utilized to characterize the nanomaterials.  The cell viability assay of AgZE in normal cells (CHO and HEK-293) shows their biocompatible nature which is supported by hemolytic assay using mouse RBC. Interestingly, the nanoparticles exhibited cytotoxicity towards different cancer cell lines (U-87, MCF-7, HeLa and PANC-1). The detailed anticancer activity of AgZE on human glioblastoma cell line (U-87) is exhibited through various in vitro assays. In vivo the AgZE illustrates anticancer activity by inhibiting blood vessel formation through CAM assay. Furthermore, the AgZE nanoparticles when intraperitoneally injected in C57BL6/J mice exhibit fluorescence properties in the NIR region (excitation: 710nm, emission: 820nm) evidenced by bioimaging studies. The AgZE biodistribution through ICPOES analysis illustrates the presence of silver in different vital organs. Considering all the results, AgZE could be useful as a potential cancer therapeutic agent as well as NIR based non-invasive imaging tool in near future.