Human cells-mediated synthesis of metallic nanoparticles

Abstract

Nanotechnology supposed a revolution for society and every aspect of life as we know it. The biomedical applications of materials whose size goes below the 100 nm have been extensively studied, s showing how nanoparticles, nanorods, and other geometries are able to face some of the most important concerns that the healthcare system is facing nowadays, like antimicrobial resistance to antibiotics and cancer. Nevertheless, some environmental and biocompatibility-related concerns arise from the use of these nanostructures, with an important relation between the final application and the method of synthesis of the different nanostructures. As a consequence, Green Nanotechnology appeared as a revolutionary approach for production of nanomaterials through an environmentally-friendly and cost-effective methodology, based on the use of living organisms, biomolecules and waste materials. With such a background, we decided to take a step further and develop a completely novel approach for the production of noble metallic mono- and bimetallic nanoparticles using healthy and cancerous human skin cells. On this approach, gold (Au), palladium (Pd), platinum (Pt), gold-palladium (AuPd) and gold-platinum (AuPt) nanoparticles were prepared using human dermal fibroblasts (HDF) and melanoma cells in a complete green and environmentally-friendly approach. These nanoparticles, after purification and characterization, were used as biomedical agents in cytotoxicity studies, showing an interesting dose-dependent concentration selectivity towards different cell lines that might be related to the presence of particular molecules in the coating surrounding the nanostructure whose origin is ligated to the cell that synthesizes it. It was possible to observe how HDF-mediated nanoparticles showed a strong anticancer effect while no significant cytotoxicity effect was found towards HDF cells, with the opposite behavior observed for nanoparticles synthesized with melanoma, in a range of concentrations between 25 and 100 ug/mL. Therefore, a green, environmentally-friendly and cost-effective approach was developed for the production of noble metallic nanoparticles using skin cells, that clearly overcomes the main limitations of traditional synthesis in terms of production and biocompatibility.