Watermelon Rind Mediated Biosynthesis of Bimetallic Selenium-Silver Nanoparticles: Characterization, Antimicrobial and Anticancer Activities

Abstract

One of the most hazardous diseases that influences human health globally is microbial infection. Therefore, bimetallic nanoparticles have received much attention for controlling microbial infections in the current decade. In the present study, bimetallic selenium–silver nanoparticles (Se-Ag NPs) were effectively biosynthesized using watermelon rind WR extract through the green technique for the first time. UV-visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) methods were used to characterize the produced NPs. The results indicated that the bimetallic Se-Ag NPs had synergistic antimicrobial activity at low concentrations, which helped to reduce the toxicity of Ag NPs after the bimetallic Se-Ag NPs preparation and increase their great potential. Se-Ag NPs with sizes ranging from 18.3 nm to 49.6 nm were detected by TEM. Se-Ag NP surfaces were uniformly visible in the SEM picture. The cytotoxicity of bimetallic Se-Ag NPs was assessed against the Wi38 normal cell line to check their safety, where the IC50 was 168.42 µg/mL. The results showed that bimetallic Se-Ag NPs had antibacterial action against Candida albicans, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella oxytoca, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus aureus with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 12.5 to 50 µg/mL. Additionally, bimetallic Se-Ag NPs had promising anticancer activity toward the MCF7 cancerous cell line, where the IC50 was 21.6 µg/mL. In conclusion, bimetallic Se-Ag NPs were biosynthesized for the first time using WR extract, which had strong antibacterial, antifungal and anticancer properties.

Comprehensive antifungal investigation of green synthesized silver nanoformulation against four agriculturally significant fungi and its cytotoxic applications

“…04-0783. The obtained peaks at the 2θ value confirmed that the synthesized AgNPs possess a face-centered cubic (fcc) structure 77 . The average crystallite size of the nanoparticles was calculated from the full-width half maximum and Bragg reflections by using the following Debye–Scherrer equation 78 : where D is the crystal size estimated from the XRD patterns, θ is the Bragg angle in degrees, λ is 1.5406 Å, the wavelength of the X-ray source used, β is the full-width half maximum (FWHM) of the diffraction peak in radians and K is the constant (geometric factor) of Debye–Scherrer’s equation.…”

Endophytic Aspergillus hiratsukae mediated biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles and their antimicrobial and photocatalytic activities

“…UV–Vis analysis was carried out to measure absorbance between 300 and 800 nm using a UV–Vis spectrophotometer (JENWAY 6305 spectrophotometer). The size and shape of Ag-NPs were characterized using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) (JEM1230, Japan, Akishima, Tokyo, 196–8558) ( Hashem et al, 2023b ). SEM–EDX was used to analyze the elemental compositions of Ag-NPs produced during biosynthesis.…”

Green synthesis of gold and silver nanoparticles using crude extract of Aconitum violaceum and evaluation of their antibacterial, antioxidant and photocatalytic activities

“…Nanoparticles (having size in range of 100 nm) have received significant attention due to the unique physical and chemical properties that arise primarily from their dimensions. These properties make them suitable in a broad array of applications ( Hashem and Salem, 2022 ; Hashem et al, 2023 ) including gas sensors ( Shin et al, 2023 ), lithium-ion batteries ( Fang et al, 2023 ), dye-sensitized solar cells ( Jin et al, 2023 ), adsorption ( Debnath and Das, 2023 ), heterogeneous photodegradation ( Mota et al, 2023 ), biosensing ( Lei et al, 2023 ), and antibacterial substrates ( lashin et al, 2023 ; Al-Askar et al, 2023 ). Additionally, NPs have shown a vast range of biological applications, including antibacterial, anticancer, and antioxidant properties ( Singh et al, 2023 ).…”