Comparative Study of the Cytotoxic Effect of Silver Nanoparticles on Human Lymphocytes and HPB-ALL Cell Line: As an In Vitro Study

Abstract

Background: Cancer is currently the second leading cause of death worldwide that is originated from cell growth and proliferation without control. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) is one of the types of leukemia that affects lymphocyte maturation and it is common among children. Silver nanoparticles are considered one of the targeted chemotherapy methods by creating cytotoxicity. Objectives: In this research, a comparative study of cytotoxic effect of silver nanoparticles was evaluated on human lymphocytes and HPB-ALL cell line as an in vitro study. Methods: In this experimental study, lymphocytes and HPB-ALL cell line were exposed to silver nanoparticles at RPMI 1640 medium culture in order to assess toxicity for 24 hours. To this aim, MTT assay was used to evaluate the toxicity of the silver nanoparticles. DNA fragmentation and apoptosis were evaluated by Gel Electrophoresis and Flow Cytometry, respectively. Moreover, quantitative PCR was performed on bax, bcl-2, and caspase-9 genes. Results: The results of MTT assay showed IC50 values of silver nanoparticles were 5.87 and 2.68 μg/mL for lymphocytes and HPB-ALL cell line, respectively. The results showed that silver nanoparticles could split DNA of the HPB-ALL cell line more than DNA of the lymphocytes during DNA fragmentation. Flow Cytometry results indicated that the early apoptosis was 6.04% and 22.75% in lymphocytes and HPB-ALL cell line, respectively. Moreover, Q-PCR results showed a significant up-regulation of caspase-9 and bax genes and downregulation of bcl-2 gene in comparison to the control group. Conclusions: The silver nanoparticles had cytotoxic effects on the lymphocytes and HPB-ALL cell line. The results showed that the silver nanoparticle had a significant cytotoxic effect on HPB-ALL cell line.