The investigation of the effects of synthesized Zinc oxide nanoparticles on the DNA using green chemistry

Abstract

. In this study, the extract of coffee powder was used to synthesize the zinc oxide nanoparticles due to the compatibility of the method with the environment and the absence of any toxic substance as the byproduct of the reaction. Then, the interaction of zinc oxide nanoparticles with calf thymus DNA was investigated by various spectroscopic methods such as UV-Visible, fluorescence and circular dichroism (CD) techniques. UV-Visible data showed that zinc oxide nanoparticles induced denaturation in DNA in a dose-dependent manner at both the room and physiologic temperatures. The results of extrinsic fluorescence emission of ethidium bromide (EB) also showed that the increase of the zinc oxide nanoparticles concentrations led to the decrease of the emission intensity of EB. This may be the consequence of the intercalation of the nanoparticles into the DNA structure. Also, CD data showed that the synthesized zinc oxide caused structural changes in the DNA. According to the results, it can be concluded that zinc oxide nanoparticles can bind with DNA and induce some structural changes in the DNA structure.