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This study was aimed to isolate soil fungi from Kolli and Yercaud Hills, South India with the ultimate objective of producing antimicrobial nanoparticles. Among 65 fungi tested, the isolate, Bios PTK 6 extracellularly synthesized both silver and gold nanoparticles with good monodispersity. Under optimized reaction conditions, the strain Bios PTK 6 identified as Aspergillus terreus has produced extremely stable nanoparticles within 12h. These nanoparticles were characterized by UV-vis. spectrophotometer, HR-TEM, FTIR, XRD, EDX, SAED, ICP-AES and Zetasizer analyses. A. terreus synthesized 8-20 nm sized, spherical shaped silver nanoparticles whereas gold nanoparticles showed many interesting morphologies with a size of 10-50 nm. The presence and binding of proteins with nanoparticles was confirmed by FTIR study. Interestingly, the myco derived silver nanoparticles exhibited superior antimicrobial activity than the standard antibiotic, streptomycin except against Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis. The leakage of intracellular components such as protein and nucleic acid demonstrated that silver nanoparticles damage the bacterial cells by formation of pores, which affects membrane permeability and finally leads to cell death. Further, presence of nanoparticles in the bacterial membrane and the breakage of cell wall were also observed using SEM. Thus, the obtained results clearly reveal that these antimicrobial nanoparticles could be explored as promising candidates for a variety of biomedical and pharmaceutical applications.

This study reports the in vitro cytotoxic effect of biologically synthesized silver and gold nanoparticles against MDA-MB-231, human breast cancer cells. Formation of silver and gold nanoparticles was observed within 30 min and the various characterization techniques such as UV–vis spectrophotometer, FE-SEM, TEM and XRD studies were confirmed the synthesis of nanoparticles. Further, MTT, acridine orange and ethidium bromide (AO/EB) dual staining, caspase-3 and DNA fragmentation assays were carried out using various concentrations of silver and gold nanoparticles ranging from 1 to 100 μg/ml. At 100 μg/ml concentration, the plant extract derived nanoparticles exhibited significant cytotoxic effects and the apoptotic features were confirmed through caspase-3 activation and DNA fragmentation assays. Thus, the results of the present study indicate that biologically synthesized silver and gold nanoparticles might be used to treat breast cancer; however, it necessitates clinical studies to ascertain their potential as anticancer agents.

The aim of this study was to synthesize highly biocompatible and functionalized silver nanoparticles using endophytic fungi isolated from the leaves of medicinal plants. Among 13 fungi tested, the isolate, Guignardia mangiferae (Bios PTK 4) extracellularly synthesized well-dispersed and extremely stable silver nanoparticles under optimized reaction conditions within 12 h. These nanoparticles were characterized by HR-TEM, SAED, XRD and EDX analyses. G. mangiferae synthesized 5-30 nm sized, spherical shaped silver nanoparticles. Effect of pH on the antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles was studied using well diffusion assay; on the basis of particle stability and antibacterial activity, pH 7 was found to be optimum. The leakage of intracellular components has clearly demonstrated that silver nanoparticles damage the bacterial cells by formation of pores, which affect the membrane permeability and finally leads to cell death. In addition, silver nanoparticles exhibited excellent antifungal activity against plant pathogenic fungi. Cytotoxic effects of silver nanoparticles showed IC50 values of 63.37, 27.54 and 23.84 μg/mL against normal African monkey kidney (Vero), HeLa (cervical) and MCF-7 (breast) cells, respectively, at 24 h incubation period. Thus, the obtained results convincingly suggest that silver nanoparticles synthesized from G. mangiferae are highly biocompatible and have wider applicability and they could be explored as promising candidates for a variety of biomedical/pharmaceutical and agricultural applications.