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Abstract

The present study is a small attempt of synthesis of gold nanocomposites with anticancer drug cisplatin and their cytotoxicity test on HeLa cell line. There are many well-established reports on the synthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) chemically. But as an ecofriendly alternative various plant extracts also been used for the reduction and synthesis of AuNPs. AuNPs in this study have been synthesized from ethanolic bract extract of Musa balbisiana. Further the drug-loaded nanocomposite (AuNPCHCS) was synthesized using the synthesized AuNPs with chitosan (CH) and anticancer drug cisplatin (CS). AuNPs were tested for their cytotoxicity in a cancerous cell line, HeLa using MTT assay and found nontoxic up to the concentration of 100 µM. At the concentration of 10 µg/ml, cell viability reduced to 52% in case of nanocomposites and 55.7% in case of free drug. Results suggested that when nontoxic AuNPCH composites were loaded with CS, were able to kill the cancer cells efficiently compared to free drug. These synthesized nanoparticles are non-covalently conjugated with anticancer drug cisplatin. The synthesized nanocomposites show similar cytotoxic effect compared with the free drug, indicating an increased susceptibility of cells to cisplatin. INTRODUCTION: Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) have several biomedical and industrial applications mostly in the diagnosis of diseases, targeted delivery of drug, gene, protein, and in imaging due to their biocompatibility and cytotoxicity. Small size and multifunctionality are the main characteristics of AuNPs. Nanoparticles can be integrated with ligands, imaging labels, therapeutic agents and other functional groups for specific drug delivery and cellular uptake.