biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using hydroethanolic extract of cucurbita pepo l. fruit and their anti- proliferative and apoptotic activity against breast cancer cell line (mcf-7)

Introduction: cancer is the second leading cause of death all over the world and breast cancer is the second common member of cancers worldwide. in this study, silver nanoparticles (ag-nps) were synthesized; using hydroethanolic extract of cucurbita pepo l. fruit and evaluated for their antiproliferative and apoptotic activities against mcf-7 cell line. methods: ag-nps formation was characterized by ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy, energy dispersive spectroscopy (edx), scanning electron microscopy (sem), dynamic light scattering (dls), and fourier transform infrared (ftir) spectroscopy. cytotoxicity and apoptosis responses were evaluated by 3-[4,5 - dimethylthiazole-2-yl]-2,5- diphenyltetrazolium bromide (mtt) and dual acridine orange/ethidium bromide (ao/ eb) fluorescent staining, respectively. results: our results demonstrated the formation of ag-nps by cucurbita pepo l. fruit extract discoloration to dark black. this transformation revealed their slightly aggregated shapes to quasi-spherical form with a mean diameter of 104 nm. the zeta potential value was -42.3 mv for any ag-nps. these results indicated the successful formation of ag- nps for cellular uptake. mtt results showed that ag- nps significantly decreased the viability and induced mcf-7 cells apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner; especially at concentrations of 50 and 250 μg/ml. conclusions: in conclusion, according to the results of the present study, biologically synthesized ag-nps induce apoptotic and cytotoxic effects against breast cancer cell lines in a dose-dependent manner.