title: Biosynthesis of Anti-Proliferative Gold Nanoparticles Using Endophytic Fusarium oxysporum Strain Isolated from Neem (A. indica) Leaves.
abstract: Here we report a simple, rapid, environment friendly approach for the synthesis of gold nanoparticles using neem (Azadirachta indica A. Juss.) fungal endophyte, which based upon morphological and cultural characteristics was eventually identified as Fusarium oxysporum. The aqueous precursor (HAuCl4) solution when reacted with endophytic fungus resulted in the biosynthesis of abundant amounts of well dispersed gold nanoparticles of 10-40 nm with an average size of 22nm. These biosynthesized gold nanoparticles were then characterized by standard analytical techniques such as UV-Visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, Transmission Electron Microscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. Cytotoxic activity of these nanoparticles was checked against three different cell types including breast cancer (ZR-75-1), Daudi (Human Burkitt's lymphoma cancer) and normal human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), where it was found that our gold nanoparticles are anti-proliferative against cancer cells but completely safe toward normal cells. In addition to this, assessment of toxicity toward human RBC revealed less than 0.1 % hemolysis as compared to Triton X-100 suggesting safe nature of our biosynthesized gold nanoparticles on human cells. Also, our nanoparticles exhibited no anti-fungal (against Aspergillus niger) or anti-bacterial [against Gram positive (Bacillus subtilis & Staphylococcus aureus) and Gram negative (Escherichia coli & Pseudomonas aeruginosa) bacteria] activity thus suggesting their non-toxic, biocompatible nature. The present investigation opens up avenues for ecofriendly, biocompatible nanomaterials to be used in a wide variety of application such as drug delivery, therapeutics, theranostics and so on.
authors.forename: Ejaz Ahmad
authors.initials: EA
authors.lastname: Siddiqui
authors.affiliation: Division of Biochemical Sciences, CSIR-National Chemical Laboratory, Pune-411008 (M.S), India. a.ahmad@ncl.res.in.
authors.forename: Absar
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.forename: Anju
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Julius
authors.forename: Asad
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Syed
authors.forename: Shadab
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Khan
authors.forename: Mahesh
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kharat
authors.forename: Kalpana
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Pai
authors.forename: Narendra
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kadoo
authors.forename: Vidya
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Gupta
mesh_terms: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D000935:Antifungal Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000737:chemistry / Q000494:pharmacology*; D031601:Azadirachta / Q000382:microbiology*; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004354:Drug Screening Assays, Antitumor; D005670:Fusarium / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000378:metabolism*; D006046:Gold / Q000737:chemistry; D006801:Humans; D007963:Leukocytes, Mononuclear / Q000187:drug effects; D053768:Metal Nanoparticles / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000737:chemistry; D008826:Microbial Sensitivity Tests; D046529:Microscopy, Electron, Transmission; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000382:microbiology; D013056:Spectrophotometry, Ultraviolet; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared; D014961:X-Ray Diffraction
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D000935:Antifungal Agents; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents; D006046:Gold