Role of gold and silver nanoparticles in cancer nano-medicine

Figures & data

Figure 1. Methods of nanoparticle synthesis.

Figure 2. Mechanism of NPs formation by biological approach: reduction, growth and stabilization of NPs. M corresponds to Au or Ag.

Table 1. Summary of gold and silver nanoparticles synthesized using biological agents.

Biological agent	Metal salts used	Shape	Size	Application	Reference
Bacteria
Klebsiella pneumoniae	Gold	Spherical	10–15 nm	Antibacterial	[53]
E. coli	Silver	Spherical	20–50 nm	Antibacterial	[54]
Bacillus subtilis EWP-46	Silver	Various shapes	10–20 nm	Antibacterial	[55]
Bacillus flexus	Silver	Spherical and triangular	10 and 65 nm	Antibacterial	[56]
Bacillus licheniformis	Silver	Spherical	50 nm	Anti-tumour in Dalton’s lymphoma	[57]
Staphylococcus aureus	Silver	Irregular	160–180 nm	Antibacterial	[58]
Pseudomonas aeruginosa	Gold	–	15–30 nm	Antibacterial and sensing	[59]
Lactobacillus sporogenes	Silver	Various	10–25 and 10–70 nm	–	[60]
Rhodopseudomonas capsulata	Gold	Various	10–20 nm	–	[61]
Fungus
Aspergillus niger	Silver	Spherical	1–20 nm	Antibacterial and antifungal	[62]
Fusarium sp.	Cadmium sulphide	Spherical	80–120 nm	–	[63]
Fusarium acuminatum	Silver	Spherical	13 nm	Antibacterial	[64]
Penicillium fellutanum	Silver	Spherical	5–25 nm	–	[65]
Pleurotus florida	Gold	Spherical, triangular	10–50 nm	Anticancer	[66]
Verticillium sp.	Gold	Spherical, hexagonal, triangular	25 nm	–	[67]
Ganoderma neo-japonicum	Silver	Spherical	5 nm	Anticancer; breast cancer	[68]
Algae and plant
Sargassum muticum	Magnetic Iron oxide	Cubic	18 ± 4 nm	Antibacterial	[69]
Bifurcaria bifurcata	Copper oxide	Spherical, elongated	20.66 nm	Antibacterial	[70]
Ficus religiosa	Copper oxide	Spherical	577 nm	Anticancer; lung cancer	[71]
Origanum vulgare	Silver	Spherical	136 ± 10.09 nm	Antibacterial and anticancer	[72]
Aloe vera	Gold	Triangles	50–350 nm	–	[73]
	Silver	Spherical	15.2 and 4.2 nm	–
Moringa oleifera	Silver	Spherical	57 nm	Antimicrobial	[74]
Azadirachta indica	Silver	Spherical	5–35 nm	–	[75]
	Gold	Hexagonal, triangular	50–200 nm	–
	Bimetallic	Spherical	50–100 nm	–
Ocimum Tenuiflorum	Zinc oxide	Hexagonal	13.86 nm	–	[76]
Eucalyptus chapmaniana	Silver	–	60 nm	Antimicrobial and anti-cancerous; leukaemia	[77]

Figure 3. Major mechanisms followed by AuNPs and AgNPs to exert their anti-cancer properties: AuNPs and AgNPs are taken up by the cell by endocytosis, the vesicles are distributed in the cytoplasm and nucleus producing toxic effects leading to apoptosis or programmed cell death (ROS – reactive oxygen species, TNF – Tumour necrosis factor, VEGF – Vascular endothelial growth factor, VEGFR – Vascular endothelial growth factor receptor and IL-6 – interleukin-6).

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