Green Nanotechnology as an innovative drug delivery approach for Typha capensis and Naringenin—New class of phytochemical embedded biocompatible gold nanoparticles in prostate cancer therapy

Abstract

Naringenin, a flavone with a growing body of evidence as an anti-cancer agent, is found in Typha capensis, an indigenous South African plant commonly used in traditional medicine. However, despite favourable in vitro results, clinical usage of naringenin remains restricted due to notoriously poor oral bioavailability, rapid metabolism and poor tumour site availability. This study aimed to investigate a simple, easily reproduced, reliable and effective drug delivery method of mitigating these issues using green nanotechnology principles, and assess their biomedical applications in the treatment of prostate cancer. Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were synthesized using green nanotechnology principles and characterized by spectrophotometry, dynamic light scattering, zeta potential, transmission electron microscopy, and Folin-ciocalteu phenol assay. Effects on LNCaP and PC-3 cell viability were evaluated using the MTT assay. A significant (P < 0.0001, P = 0.0003, P = 0.0002) reduction in cell viability was observed for S1-AuNPs, S2-AuNPs and Ng-AuNPs, respectively, in PC3 cells. The extracts, naringenin, and subsequent AuNPs yielded comparable levels of toxicity toward the LNCaP cells. This study reports the first successful synthesis of self-stabilized AuNPs from naringenin in isolation and, most importantly, the application of these novel particles as an effective drug delivery tool. The biomedical applications of this novel formulation and drug delivery approach is expected to aid effective delivery of anticancer therapeutics, in this case naringenin, and thus expand the realms of the treatment of prostate cancer.