Physicochemical properties, anticancer and antimicrobial activities of metallic nanoparticles green synthesized by Aspergillus kambarensis

Abstract

In the present study, metal and metal oxide nanoparticles were successfully synthesized using Aspergillus kambarensis. UV–Vis spectroscopy showed maximum absorbance of 417 nm for silver (AgNPs), 542 nm for gold (AuNPs), 582 nm for copper (CuNPs) and 367 nm for zinc oxide (ZnONPs) nanoparticles. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy indicated the presence of various mycochemicals with diverse functional groups in the fungal cell-free filtrate. Transmission electron microscopy revealed mono and poly dispersed particles with an estimate size of 50 nm and different shapes for synthesized manufacture metallic nanoparticles (MNPs. Dynamic light scattering confirmed that MNPs were dispersed in the size range less than 50 nm. Zeta potential analysis showed values of −41.32 mV (AgNPs), −41.26 mV (AuNPs), −34.74 mV (CuNPs) and 33.72 mV (ZnONPs). X-ray diffraction analysis demonstrated crystalline nature for MNPs. All the synthesized MNPs except AuNPs showed strong antifungal and antibacterial activity in disc diffusion assay with growth inhibition zones of 13.1–44.2 mm as well as anticancer activity against HepG-2 cancer cell line with IC₅₀ in the range of 62.01–77.03 µg/ml. Taken together, the results show that biologically active MNPs synthesized by A. kambarensis for the first time could be considered as promising antimicrobial and anticancer agents for biomedical applications.