title: Biological synthesis of silver nanoparticles using the fungus Humicola sp. and evaluation of their cytoxicity using normal and cancer cell lines.
abstract: Nanoscience is a new born science of the modern era and taps into the potential of particles at nanoscale. Bulk materials reduced to nanoscale dimensions thus obtain unique properties such as electronic, optical, magnetic and chemical. As far as synthesis of nanoparticles is concerned, biological synthesis has recently sparked a great interest as compared to other available chemical and physical methods on account of its eco-friendliness and cost-effectiveness. Here we report, for the first time, the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles by the thermophilic fungus Humicola sp. The fungus when reacted with Ag(+) ions reduces the precursor solution and leads to the formation of extracellular nanoparticles as monitored by ultra violet visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). The morphology of nanoparticles is found to be spherical with good dispersity as revealed by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Cell viability assays were carried out to assess the cytotoxicity of silver nanoparticles on NIH3T3 mouse embryonic fibroblast cell line and MDA-MB-231 human breast carcinoma cell line.
authors.affiliation: Division of Biochemical Sciences, National Chemical Laboratory, Pune 411 008, India.
authors.forename: Asad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Syed
authors.forename: Supriya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saraswati
authors.forename: Gopal C
authors.initials: GC
authors.lastname: Kundu
authors.forename: Absar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ahmad
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001203:Ascomycota / Q000378:metabolism*; D001943:Breast Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000627:therapeutic use* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D012834:Silver / Q000378:metabolism* / Q000627:therapeutic use*
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D012834:Silver
keywords: Cell viability; Fungus; Humicola sp.; Nanoparticles; Silver