Zinc oxide nanoparticles as novel alpha-amylase inhibitors

Abstract

Amylase inhibitors, also known as starch blockers, contain substances that prevent dietary starches from being absorbed by the body via inhibiting breakdown of complex sugars to simpler ones. In this sense, these materials are projected as having potential applications in diabetes control. In this context, we report on zinc oxide nanoparticles as possible alpha-amylase inhibitors. Zinc oxide nanoparticles have been synthesized using soft-chemistry approach and 1-thioglycerol was used as a surfactant to yield polycrystalline nanoparticles of size ∼18 nm, stabilized in wurtzite structure. Conjugation study and structural characterization have been done using x-ray diffraction technique, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, UV-visible spectroscopy, and transmission electron microscopy. Cytotoxicity studies on human fibrosarcoma (HT-1080) and skin carcinoma (A-431) cell lines as well as mouse primary fibroblast cells demonstrate that up to a dose of 20 μg/ml, ZnO nanoparticles are nontoxic to the cells. We report for the first time the alpha-amylase inhibitory activity of ZnO nanoparticles wherein an optimum dose of 20 μg/ml was sufficient to exhibit 49% glucose inhibition at neutral pH and 35 °C temperature. This inhibitory activity was similar to that obtained with acarbose (a standard alpha-amylase inhibitor), thereby projecting ZnO nanoparticles as novel alpha-amylase inhibitors.

Distinct biokinetic behavior of ZnO nanoparticles in Daphnia magna quantified by synthesizing 65Zn tracer

“…ZnO is an important group IIeVI semiconductor with a band gap of 3.37 eV and a large exciton binding energy of 60 meV at room temperature . ZnO nanocrystals have considerable potentials as materials for sensors, light-emitting diodes, transparent conductive films, solar cells, and UV blockers (Qi et al, 2008;Klingshirn, 2007;Kö nenkamp et al, 2004;Izaki and Omi, 1996;Law et al, 2005;Dhobale et al, 2008). Subsequently, the engineered nZnO will be inevitably discharged into the aquatic environment, and may be accumulated by the organisms through internal or external exposure routes.…”

Catalyst efficiency, photostability and reusability study of ZnO nanoparticles in visible light for dye degradation

“…As predicted, the samples showed high cellular viability with ZnO1000 (100% for MB and 64% for MO) as compared to ZnO600 (58% for MB and 45% for MO) and P25 (99% for MB and 59% for MO). In our past attempts, we have already studied efficacy of ZnO for their cytotoxicity evaluation, which had given us similar message [31]. It is also important to specify here that if large sized ZnO powders are used for such applications, their separation from clean water system becomes quite easy (by mere filtration), inviting yet another advantage of larger particle system.…”

Investigation on cellular interactions of astrocytes with zinc oxide nanoparticles using rat C6 cell lines

“…Many studies project ZnO NPs as potential agents for various biomedical applications like bio-sensing [4], cancer therapy, [5,6] gene targeting [7,8] and drug delivery [9,10]. Also, there are studies stating the use of ZnO NPs in cell imaging [11], in diabetes treatment as dietary modulators, as cholesterol biosensors [12] and as anti-inflammatory agents [13].…”