Anticancer effect of Ag, Au, and Ag/Au bimetallic nanoparticles prepared in the presence of tryptophan

Abstract

The use of metal nanoparticles (NPs) in cancer managment has gained great attention the last decade. However a lot of research is needed to be conducted regarding the targeting potential, the therapeutic effects, their stability in vitro and in vivo and their cytotoxicity effects in order to be successfully incorporated in the clinical management of cancer. Previous studies in our lab, suggested the bimetallic AgAu NPs stabilized with aminoacid tryptophan as effective in attenuating potential hepatotoxicity and nephrotoxicity of NPs during their in vivo application. In the present study, we aimed to study the fabrication of bimetallic “alloy” AgAu nanoparticles with the specific aim to define the optimal metal composition in bimetallic NPs with maximal antitumor effect. To this end we also measured the cytotoxicity of the bimetallic NPs in cancer cell lines. From the study, it is outlined that the ratio Ag:Au = 3:1 is suggested to be the optimal metal composition in bimetallic AgAu NPs with maximal antitumor effect for their use as “chemotherapeutic agents,” while the bimetallic AgAu NPs with metal ratio 1:3 seems to be the less toxic, suggesting this ratio to be the optimal for future in vivo assays, such as targeted localized therapy. Additionally, taking into consideration localized surface plasmon resonance absorption of bimetallic NPs, their use is also suggested for various methods that include irradiation and/or heating. Copyright © 2017 American Scientific Publishers All rights reserved