Green synthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles using marine algae and study of its anticancer activities

Abstract

According to recent statistics, cancer is the highest cause of death worldwide, and the drugs utilized for treatment of various cancers are not fully effective and are ultimately susceptible to resistance/show drastic side effects in patients. Thus, there is a need to discover more effective therapeutic agents to treat this disease by utilizing the modern technologies and approaches. In modern technology, nanotechnology is gaining importance owing to its wide range of applications, in agriculture, medicine, and industry. newlineFor the treatment of cancer various drugs are used which may be produced, either synthetically or naturally. Synthetic drugs have more harmful effect on patients and may cause the destruction of normal cells. Naturally, the drugs are synthesized from various biological sources, particularly from medicinal plants. Now researchers are trying to develop the cancer drugs from marine resources as it covers one third regions on earth surface. Thus, the marine resources are utilized for the development and production of modern drugs. The marine organisms also contain enormous amount of bioactive compounds. Nowadays many drugs are obtained from sea sources. Marine resources are utilized in medicine all over the world and still continue to occupy a significant position in conventional as well as in modern medicines. Out of the vast marine resources, a few marine algae possess medicinal and chemical compounds exhibiting antioxidant and anticancer properties. newlineThe present study aims at the investigation of anticancer efficiency of synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from marine algae against HCT-116 Colon cancer cells. The Colon cancer cell line and Fat Head Minnow (FHM) cell line were procured from National Centre for Cell Science, Pune, India. Four species of marine algae were used to synthesize the silver nanoparticles. The species are Enteromorpha compressa, Chaetomorpha linum, Cladophora glomerata and Ulva lactuca. newline