Green Synthesis of a Novel PtFe2O4@Ag Nanocomposite: Implications for Cytotoxicity, Gene Expression and Anti-Cancer Studies in Gastric Cancer Cell Line

In recent years, many attempts have been made to find novel anticancer agents for the treatment of advanced and metastatic gastric cancers. Metal nanoparticles (NPs) have gained attention for their unique characteristics to be used in anticancer chemotherapy. Silver and platinum have been extensively studied for their biomedical applications. However, the functionalization of such NPs was less described. In this work, we synthesized PtFe2O4 NPs and conjugated them with silver NPs using the Scenedesmus obliquus extract. The synthesized nanocomposite was characterized using physiochemical assays and then, cytotoxicity potential of PtFe2O4@Ag nanocomposite against AGS cells was investigated. Proper synthesis of PtFe2O4@Ag NPs was confirmed by the XRD, SEM and TEM, and FT-IR. The spherical nanocomposite was synthesized with a size range of 20-40 nm. Also, the purity of the nanocomposite was evaluated using EDX assay, and the stability of the particles was determined by zeta potential (- 35.2 mV). The AGS cells were more susceptible to the nanocomposite (IC50 = 48 mu g/mL) than HEK293 cells (IC50 = 158 mu g/mL). Hoechst staining and flow cytometry assay indicated nuclear damages, chromatin fragmentation, and also apoptosis induction among nanocomposite treated cells. Following exposure to PtFe2O4@Ag NPs, the expression and activity of caspase-3 were reduced by 1.41 and 1.9 folds, respectively. The qRT-PCR assay showed that the expression of the Bax gene increased by 2.2 folds and the Bcl2 gene reduced to 0.62 folds, in comparison with the control cells. This work showed a promising anticancer potential of PtFe2O4@Ag NPs towards gastric cancer cells and elucidated the molecular mechanism of their cytotoxicity potential via triggering the apoptotic pathway.

Automated summary

In recent years, there have been numerous attempts to find novel anticancer agents for the treatment of advanced and metastatic gastric cancers. This study focused on synthesizing PtFe2O4@Ag NPs and exploring their cytotoxicity potential against gastric cancer cells. The results showed that PtFe2O4@Ag NPs exhibited significant inhibitory effects on gastric cancer cells and induced cytotoxicity through the apoptotic pathway.