Green supported of Au nanoparticles over reduced graphene oxide: Investigation of its cytotoxicity, antioxidant and anti-human breast cancer properties

Abstract

An efficient and green approach described for reduced graphene oxide-Au nanoparticles hybrid by using extract of Thymbra as stabilizing/reducing agent. Thyme extract can reduce graphene oxide and immobilized on its surface. Next, the modified surface did reduce Au ions to Au nanoparticles and stabilize them. The resulting rGO/Au NPs nanocomposite were characterized by various technique like UV–Vis spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), wavelength-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (WDX), X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and inductively coupled plasma (ICP). The results showed that Au nanoparticles uniformly decorated on the surface of designed graphene. In the cellular and molecular part of the recent study, the treated cells with rGO/Au NPs nanocomposite were assessed by MTT assay for 48 h about the cytotoxicity and anti-human breast cancer properties on normal (HUVEC) and breast malignancy cell lines i.e., breast adenocarcinoma (MCF7), breast carcinoma (Hs 578Bst), infiltrating ductal cell carcinoma (Hs 319.T), and metastatic carcinoma (MDA-MB-453). The viability of malignant breast cell line reduced dose-dependently in the presence of rGO/Au NPs nanocomposite. The IC50 of rGO/Au NPs nanocomposite were 186, 308, 125, and 403 µg/mL against Hs 578Bst, MCF7, Hs 319.T, and MDA-MB-453 cell lines, respectively. In the antioxidant test, the IC50 of rGO/Au NPs nanocomposite and BHT against DPPH free radicals were 125 and 165 µg/mL, respectively.