Pouteria Caimito nutritional fruit derived silver nanoparticles and core-shell nanospheres synthesis, characterization, and their oral cancer preventive efficiency

Abstract

This study aimed to assess the synthesis of biogenic silver nanoparticles (BAg) and core–shell nanospheres (BAg@SiO2) from PC fruit extract using an eco-friendly method. Besides, these BAg and BAg@SiO2 are used to evaluate their oral cancer-preventive effectiveness against oral carcinogenesis. The BAg and BAg@SiO2 were characterized using physicochemical methods such as UV–Vis, FTIR, XRD, TEM, EDX, and ATR. The results indicated that the synthesized BAg and BAg@SiO2 both had small sizes, high stability, and no impurities. Cancer control animals showed 100% tumor and this was evidenced by the average mean volume was 386.17 mm3, and the tumor burden was 1340.53 mm3. The BAg and BAg@SiO2 treated cancer animals showed a significantly decreased tumor volume and burden compared to cancer control. The cancer animal buccal pouch showed a decrease in TBARS level, CAT activity, and SOD activity and an increase in GSH level, vitamin E level, and GPx activity. BAg-and BAg@SiO2-treated animals prevented these changes in peroxidation and antioxidant markers compared to near-normal animals. We conclude that the PC fruit extract is a favorable source for synthesizing biogenic silver nanoparticles and biogenic core–shell nanospheres. Additionally, BAg and BAg@SiO2 could exert better anticancer and antioxidant properties against oral cancer. BAg@SiO2 possessed better cancer preventive and antioxidant effects as compared to BAg because of their core-shell morphology. The core-shell morphology could be helped to sustain and trigger release of silver nanoparticles to the targeted cells. Future studies should investigate the mechanism of action of these effective BAg and BAg@SiO2 against oral carcinogenesis.