Fabrication, Characterization and Cytotoxicity of Spherical-Shaped Conjugated Gold-Cockle Shell Derived Calcium Carbonate Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

The evolution of nanomaterial in science has brought about a growing increase in nanotechnology, biomedicine, and engineering fields. This study was aimed at fabrication and characterization of conjugated gold-cockle shell-derived calcium carbonate nanoparticles (Au-CSCaCO3NPs) for biomedical application. The synthetic technique employed used gold nanoparticle citrate reduction method and a simple precipitation method coupled with mechanical use of a Programmable roller-ball mill. The synthesized conjugated nanomaterial was characterized for its physicochemical properties using transmission electron microscope (TEM), field emission scanning electron microscope (FESEM) equipped with energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). However, the intricacy of cellular mechanisms can prove challenging for nanomaterial like Au-CSCaCO3NPs and thus, the need for cytotoxicity assessment. The obtained spherical-shaped nanoparticles (light-green purplish) have an average diameter size of 35 ± 16 nm, high carbon and oxygen composition. The conjugated nanomaterial, also possesses a unique spectra for aragonite polymorph and carboxylic bond significantly supporting interactions between conjugated nanoparticles. The negative surface charge and spectra absorbance highlighted their stability. The resultant spherical shaped conjugated Au-CSCaCO3NPs could be a great nanomaterial for biomedical applications.

Cockle Shell-Derived Calcium Carbonate (Aragonite) Nanoparticles: A Dynamite to Nanomedicine

“…Mechanically synthesized CaCO 3 -aragonite nanoparticles have superior advantages over the chemically synthesized material since they are more biocompatible with cells with little or no toxic and immunogenic effect as earlier reported in previous studies [10,20,91]. This promotes their wide biomedical applications such as; drug delivery as a carrier, in diagnostic imaging as demonstrated by Kiranda et al [22] and as a scaffold in bone tissue remodelling by Mahmood et al [117]. Mechanical milling among all types of top-down method is the most extensive and widely used approach for the production of various nanoparticles, others are laser ablation, sputtering, nanolithography, and thermal decomposition [40].…”

“…Moreover, crystallization, dipole interaction, physical attraction, precipitation, covalent bonds, coordinate bonds and hydrogen bonds result in high encapsulation within the matrix of nanoparticles [2,139]. Despite the general significant increase in the size of the nanoparticles after loading as reported by a considerable number of researchers [18,22,140,141], it has been observed that the drug loading and encapsulation do not have any significant effect on the morphology of the nanoparticles. Hence, the shape and nature remains unaltered while the size increases after loading depending on the existing bond interactions between the nanoparticles and the type of drug loaded [11,17].…”

“…The properties of gold nanoparticles differed from its bulk form because unlike the bulk form the nano sized are wine red in solution which is antioxidant in nature [78]. Gold nanoparticles are less hazardous due to their comparative chemical stability [22]. In addition, they are biocompatible and they hardly interfere with other labelled biomarkers in the body [79].…”

“…Presently, CSCaCO 3 NP has remarkably drawn the attention of many researchers due to its application as a drug nanocarrier for varieties of drugs and food supplements as a result of its unique, non-hazardous, specific and beneficial properties [15,91,97,108]. Further, studies demonstrated high biocompatibility of CSCaCO 3 NP [10,16,22,97]. In addition, the biological safety evaluation of porous CSCaCO 3 NP on hFOB 1.19 cells showed that CSCaCO 3 NP could be a promising drug nanocarrier with wide safety level [16,25].…”

“…It also possess a peculiar property of low thermodynamic stability thus, its size and shape are in concordance with the method and conditions of laboratory preparations [11]. In addition, numerous studies in recent years, were carried out on its toxicity to prove its wide safety margin both in vivo and in vitro [10,[16][17][18][19][20] A significant number of publications have appeared in recent years documenting the application of CSCaCO 3 NP of aragonite polymorph nanoparticles on different models of animals and cell lines for various therapeutic purposes with regard to their synthesis, functionalization, and both in vitro and in vivo toxicity studies [4,15,16,19,21,22]. Among all available documented literature on CSCaCO 3 NP with unique features so far, no review has been documented on the overview of this very nanoparticle of cockle shell biogenic origin.…”