Silver nanoparticles: biosynthesis and cytotoxic performance against breast cancer MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines

Objective(s): A study was performed on the possibility of synthesizing silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) from Ducrosia Anethifolia Aqueous Extract for treating breast cancer MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines. Methods: The application of Ducrosia Anethifolia Aqueous Extract caused a reduction in silver ions and facilitated the production of silver nanoparticles. Different analyzing procedures were exerted to evaluate the qualities of synthesized NPs by Ducrosia Anethifolia Aqueous Extract including UV-Vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). In the following, subsequent to assessing the viability of MCF- 7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines, their exposure to AgNPs was evaluated by the usage of MTT assay. Moreover, the Bax, Bad, Bcl-2, and c-FLIP expression levels of treated cells were examined by real-time PCR analysis. Results: The observance of an absorption peak at 460 nm through the obtained data from a spectrophotometer affirmed the production of silver NPs. The images of electron microscope displayed the spherical shape of NPs in an average size of around 9.41 nm. Moreover, this product caused a robust reduction in the viability of both MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231 cell lines that was mainly pointed out by the improved expressions of Bax and Bad gene, while minimizing the gene expressions of Bcl-2 and c-FLIP. Conclusions: This experiment approved the applicability of Ducrosia Anethifolia Aqueous Extract for performing the green synthesis of NPs. In addition, the synthesized NPs exhibited anti-tumor effects on the applied breast cancer cell lines through the up-regulation of pro-apoptotic proteins concomitant along with the down-regulation of anti-apoptotic proteins expression.