Sustainable synthesis of silver nanoparticles with enhanced anticancer, antibacterial, and antioxidant properties mediated by dimeric 2,4-diacetyl phloroglucinol: Experimental and computational insights

Abstract

At the present moment, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are expected to have a wide range of biomedical applications with high therapeutic potential. Herein, we have successfully demonstrated a one-step eco-friendly strategy of natural phenolic medicinal compound analogue, dimeric 2,4-diacetyl phloroglucinol (DDAPG) derivatives capped colloidal silver nanoparticles (DDAPG-AgNPs) with enhanced bioactivity and biocompatibility. The utilization of a DDAPG can be considered as both a reducing and capping agent of AgNPs with an average diameter of ∼23.14 nm with mostly monodispersed spherical in shape as measured with HRTEM. The synthesized nanoparticles were monitored using UV–Vis and were done in a 10-minute reaction under mild aqueous and room temperature conditions. The crystalline nature of the obtained DDAPG-AgNPs was confirmed by XRD and SAED analysis, whereas the success of conjugation between DDAPG derivatives and AgNPs was validated using FTIR and EDX. Further, a theoretical simulation using density functional theory (DFT) was demonstrated. Remarkably, in-vitro cytotoxicity testing using the MTT assay revealed that DDAPG-AgNPs outperformed DDAPG derivatives in terms of cytotoxicity and biocompatibility against HeLa cancer cells. In silico studies such as molecular docking and molecular dynamic simulation were carried out to support the experimental findings. Furthermore, DDAPG-AgNPs were observed to play a prominent antibacterial against gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923) and gram-negative (Escherichia coli ATCC 25922) bacterial strains and had strong antioxidant potential. Overall, our findings shed light on the green synthesis of AgNPs as well as how to manipulate their activity for various biomedical applications.