Bioengineered silver nanoparticles induced apoptosis through upregulation of caspase 3 and caspase 8 proteins in breast adenocarcinoma MDA-MB-231 cells and impede angiogenesis

Abstract

In recent years, a lot of research has been done on silver nanoparticles (SNP) due to their numerous applications in the biomedical, pharmaceutical, and drug delivery industries. In this present study SNP were green synthesized using Melicope lunu-ankenda (M. lunu-ankenda) leaf extract. The addition of AgNO₃ causes a color change. L-arginine addition results in further colour changes confirming conjugation. A UV–Vis spectrophotometric examination showed that the absorption peak for SNP was 435 nm, while the peak for L-arginine SNP (cSNP) was 422 nm. FTIR analysis confirmed the association of amides and amines with nanoparticles. The spherical nature of the silver was disclosed by SEM, and its elemental character is verified by EDS. The thermal stability of the nanoparticles is determined by TGA analysis, while TEM examination verifies their spherical shape. Using the MTT assay, these cSNP exhibited outstanding toxicity analysis (IC₅₀ 38.72 μg/ml) against MDA-MB-231 cells. These cSNP causes damage to the mitochondria (JC1 staining), which causes oxidative stress and the production of ROS with 83% of DCF expression in cancer cells. Furthermore, as demonstrated by the Comet assay and DAPI, these cSNP cause good DNA damage in the treated cells. Additionally, using flow cytometry, cSNPs potentially trigger apoptosis by triggering the expression of caspase 3 and caspase 8 proteins. Additionally, through CAM, cSNP demonstrated strong anti-angiogenesis activity by reducing the number of blood vessel branches. These findings suggest that cSNP may be crucial for drug delivery and cancer treatment.