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Abstract
Cancer and antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics are two of the most worrying healthcare concerns that humanity is facing nowadays. Some of the most promising solutions for these healthcare problems may come from nanomedicine. While the traditional synthesis of nanomaterials is often accompanied by drawbacks such as high cost or the production of toxic by-products, green nanotechnology has been presented as a suitable solution to overcome such challenges. In this work, an approach for the synthesis of tellurium (Te) nanostructures in aqueous media has been developed using aloe vera (AV) extracts as a unique reducing and capping agent. Te-based nanoparticles (AV-TeNPs), with sizes between 20 and 60 nm, were characterized in terms of physicochemical properties and tested for potential biomedical applications. A significant decay in bacterial growth after 24 h was achieved for both Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus and multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli at a relative low concentration of 5 µg/mL, while there was no cytotoxicity towards human dermal fibroblasts after 3 days of treatment. AV-TeNPs also showed anticancer properties up to 72 h within a range of concentrations between 5 and 100 µg/mL. Consequently, here, we present a novel and green approach to produce Te-based nanostructures with potential biomedical applications, especially for antibacterial and anticancer applications.
Highlights
Antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics (AMR) has emerged as a threat to the healthcare system due to the misuse and overuse of antibiotics over the past century
aloe vera (AV)-tellurium nanoparticles (TeNPs) were successfully synthesized following a simple and straightforward protocol using an AV extract to reduce tellurite (TeO3 2− ) ions dissolved in an aqueous media to elemental tellurium (Te0 ) in the form of NPs
The AV-TeNPs have a spherical shape, exhibiting a core with metallic Te surrounded by a shell with oxidized tellurium and an organic coating composed of phytochemical components from the AV extract
Summary
Antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics (AMR) has emerged as a threat to the healthcare system due to the misuse and overuse of antibiotics over the past century. 23,000 die; even worse, this is expected to exponentially grow in the upcoming years [1,2,3]. Cancer causes around 600,000 patients to die every year just in the United. The use of radiotherapy and chemotherapy has improved life expectancy, decreasing the number of deaths over the last few years by 27%, they are not free of side effects and other drawbacks [5,6]. Tumor cell chemotherapy-drug resistance is a rising concern, often leading to total chemotherapeutic treatment failure [7]. There is a strong need for new treatments for both AMR and cancer using strategies that do not induce bacterial resistance and chemo/radiotherapy resistance, respectively. NPs can decrease bacterial survival rates without being highly toxic to mammalian cells [9]
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