Anticancer Potential of Vernonia cinerea Mediated AgNPs Against the Human Pancreatic Cancer PANC

Abstract

Vernonia cinerea (L.) Less is used in folk medicine as a remedy for various diseases. In vitro anticancer activity of green synthesized silver nanoparticles from the aqueous extract of V. cinerea extract was evaluated in the present study. Physicochemical characterization of the V. cinerea synthesized silver nanoparticles (VC-AgNPs) was performed using UV-analysis, FT-IR, SEM, XRD and DLS followed by the evaluation of anticancer activity on human pancreatic Cancer PANC. The nanoparticles were found to be spherical with a 50 nm average particle size and a zeta potential value of −18.6 mV. Silver nanoparticles exhibited significant toxicity to human pancreatic Cancer PANC with an IC50 value of 20.4 µg/ml. Following that, morphological alterations related with apoptosis were observed using acridine orange and ethidium bromide staining (AO/EtBr) with various doses of VC-AgNPs. The nanoparticles induced DNA fragmentation and also inhibited cell proliferation in PANC. In the PANC, the cytotoxic efficacy of VC-AgNPs was shown to be in dose dependant manner. Using florescence analysis, the effect of VC-AgNPs on cell cycle arrest was studied. The developed VC-AgNPs exerted potential anticancer activity on human pancreatic Cancer PANC.