Anticancer and cytotoxicity evaluation of silver-cinnamon nanoshells

Abstract

New types of surface functionalized silver-cinnamon nanoshells (Ag-CNSs) were produced in deionized water using PLAL method and characterized. Anticancer effectiveness and cytotoxicity of these Ag-CNSs against liver hepatocellular carcinoma cancer (HepG2) and normal (WRL68) cell lines was evaluated. XRD and EDX analyses of Ag-CNSs showed their excellent crystallinity and elemental compositions. HRTEM micrographs displayed the existence of cinnamon protein-capped spherical Ag nanocrystallites of size 11.12 ± 1.32 nm. These ultra-sensitive Ag-CNSs with wide surface area revealed an improved fluorescence and surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorption. The achieved Ag-CNSs exhibited strong anticancer activity (high cytotoxicity, log IC50 ≈ 59.1 %), indicating the feasibility of developing novel drugs for cancer cure. It was shown that via the surface functionalization, the anticancer efficacy of the proposed Ag-CNSs can be tailored.