Earthworm-mediated synthesis of silver nanoparticles: A potent tool against hepatocellular carcinoma, Plasmodium falciparum parasites and malaria mosquitoes

Abstract

The development of parasites and pathogens resistant to synthetic drugs highlighted the needing of novel, eco-friendly and effective control approaches. Recently, metal nanoparticles have been proposed as highly effective tools towards cancer cells and Plasmodium parasites. In this study, we synthesized silver nanoparticles (EW-AgNP) using Eudrilus eugeniae earthworms as reducing and stabilizing agents. EW-AgNP showed plasmon resonance reduction in UV-vis spectrophotometry, the functional groups involved in the reduction were studied by FTIR spectroscopy, while particle size and shape was analyzed by FESEM. The effect of EW-AgNP on in vitro HepG2 cell proliferation was measured using MTT assays. Apoptosis assessed by flow cytometry showed diminished endurance of HepG2 cells and cytotoxicity in a dose-dependent manner. EW-AgNP were toxic to Anopheles stephensi larvae and pupae, LC(50) were 4.8 ppm (I), 5.8 ppm (II), 6.9 ppm (III), 8.5 ppm (IV), and 15.5 ppm (pupae). The antiplasmodial activity of EW-AgNP was evaluated against CQ-resistant (CQ-r) and CQ-sensitive (CQ-s) strains of Plasmodium falciparum. EW-AgNP IC(50) were 49.3 μg/ml (CQ-s) and 55.5 μg/ml (CQ-r), while chloroquine IC(50) were 81.5 μg/ml (CQ-s) and 86.5 μg/ml (CQ-r). EW-AgNP showed a valuable antibiotic potential against important pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Concerning non-target effects of EW-AgNP against mosquito natural enemies, the predation efficiency of the mosquitofish Gambusia affinis towards the II and II instar larvae of A. stephensi was 68.50% (II) and 47.00% (III), respectively. In EW-AgNP-contaminated environments, predation was boosted to 89.25% (II) and 70.75% (III), respectively. Overall, this research highlighted the EW-AgNP potential against hepatocellular carcinoma, Plasmodium parasites and mosquito vectors, with little detrimental effects on mosquito natural enemies.

Nanofabrication of Graphene Quantum Dots with High Toxicity Against Malaria Mosquitoes, Plasmodium falciparum and MCF-7 Cancer Cells: Impact on Predation of Non-target Tadpoles, Odonate Nymphs and Mosquito Fishes

“…The induction of apoptosis was higher in GQDs-treated cells post-exposure to the doses of 1.88, 3.75, 7.5, 1.5 and 30 lg/ mL. In agreement with Jaganathan et al [42], the apoptotic percentage of MCF-7 cells increased significantly (P \ 0.001) with the GQD tested dose (i.e. from 1.9 to 8.4 %) (Fig.…”

“…2b). Results suggested that GQDs are able to trigger Bax/Bcl-2/cytochrome c/caspase-3 signaling pathway, activating apoptosis of MCF-7 cells (see also [42]). …”

“…Flow cytometry was used to detect apoptotic cells with diminished DNA content [42]. MCF-7 cells were seeded into 6-well plates at 1 9 10 5 cells/well.…”

Conjugation of Au Nanoparticles with Chlorambucil for Improved Anticancer Activity

“…However, the detailed studies are required to understand the process of endocytosis and molecular mechanism of nanoparticles on cancer cells. Jaganathan et al [42] in their study synthesized silver nanoparticles (EW-AgNP) using Eudrilus eugeniae earthworms as reducing and stabilizing agents. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized using UV-vis spectrophotometer, FTIR and FESEM.…”

Eco-friendly drugs from the marine environment: spongeweed-synthesized silver nanoparticles are highly effective on Plasmodium falciparum and its vector Anopheles stephensi, with little non-target effects on predatory copepods

“…The utilization of plants for nanoparticle synthesis can be advantageous over other biological processes, because it eliminates the elaborate process of maintaining cell cultures and can also be suitably scaled up for large-scale nanoparticle synthesis (Shankar et al 2004;Chandramohan et al 2016;Jaganathan et al 2016). Recently, several plants have been screened for efficient and rapid extracellular synthesis of metal nanoparticles with different mosquitocidal and antisplamodial properties (Benelli 2016a, b).…”