Comparative analysis of antifungal, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of mycosynthesized silver nanoparticles and gold nanoparticles

ABSTRACT

This study aimed to compare the antifungal, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities of Aspergillus terreus mediated silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with that of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). AgNPs were spherical in shape with a size of 8–20 nm; whereas, AuNPs showed anisotropic morphology (10–50 nm). Interestingly, AgNPs showed excellent antifungal activity against all the plant pathogens tested; while, AuNPs did not show any inhibition. However, both these nanoparticles showed good antioxidant activities. Among six different cancer cell lines tested, AgNPs showed comparatively significant cytotoxicity against MCF-7 cells with an IC₅₀ value of 2.90 μg/mL; whereas, AuNPs showed the maximum activity against HepG2 cells (IC₅₀: 25.79 μg/mL). Acridine orange-ethidium bromide (AO-EB) dual staining and nucleic acid staining (DAPI) confirmed the apoptotic phenomenon induced by nanoparticles, which was further confirmed by cell cycle analysis. Taken together, myco-derived AgNPs can be considered for potential biomedical and agricultural applications after thoroughly analysing their toxicity.

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KEYWORDS:

• Aspergillus terreus
• silver nanoparticles
• gold nanoparticles
• antifungal activity
• antioxidant activity
• in vitro cytotoxic activity

Acknowledgments

The authors thank the Director, Centre for Advanced Studies in Botany, University of Madras for providing laboratory facilities to carry out this work.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that there are no conflicts of interest.