Antitumor efficiency and photostability of newly green synthesized silver/graphene oxide nanocomposite on different cancer cell lines

Abstract

It is crucial to enhance new compounds for the treatment of most malignancies, and graphene oxide/silver nanocomposite (GO/Ag NC) has been paying attention to biomedical applications such as malignancies. In this work, green synthesized Ag@Cht NPs were successfully produced using chitosan for reduction and stabilization and added on GO sheet forming novel GO/Ag NC. Then, the produced anticancer nanomaterials GO, Ag@Cht NPs, and GO/Ag NC were assessed for their cytotoxicity against four distinct cancer cell lines: H460, HCT116, MDA-MB-468, and FaDu cells, at varying concentrations, using SRP assay after 48 h. The prepared nanomaterials were characterized by TEM, UV–Vis spectrophotometry, FTIRs, Raman spectroscopy and XRD. TEM images showed a regular spread of Ag@Cht NPs on the GO sheets with an average particle size of 15 nm. UV–Vis spectrophotometry shows two main characteristic peaks for GO/Ag NC, one close to 230 nm corresponds to GO, while the other peak at 425 nm due to Ag@Cht decorating the GO surface was blue shifted by few nanometers from 427 nm for Ag@Cht. Results of the laser irradiation by DPSS (diode-pumped solid state) confirm the photothermal stability of the prepared nanocomposite as there is no change in surface plasmon resonance (SPR) with varying exposure time. FTIRs measurements indicate that Ag ions interact with a hydroxyl group. This interaction shifts the O–H wavenumber and decreases the bond stretching intensity. In addition, Ag@Cht NPs and Ag/GO NC showed enhanced activity against cancerous cells. Results showed that GO, Ag@Cht NPs, and GO/Ag NC at (200, 400, and 600 µg/ml) had an impact on all evaluated cell lines. In MDA-MB-468, HCT116, H460, and FaDu cells, Ag@Cht NPs had the most effect across all employed cell lines, with IC50 values of 5.5, 9, 6, and 7.75 µg/ml, respectively. In conclusion, the produced novel nanocomposite may be an effective way to treat different cell lines, and future work is to use the prepared nanomaterials as anticancer drug delivery in photothermal chemotherapy combination treatment.