Biosynthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles and its therapeutic efficacy against colon cancer

• Main Authors: Alam, M. (Author), Jabir, N.R (Author), Khan, A.U (Author), Mirza, A.A (Author), Suhail, M. (Author), Tabrez, S. (Author), Zughaibi, T.A (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: De Gruyter Open Ltd 2022
• Subjects: Biochemistry; Biogenic CuO NP; biogenic CuO NPs; Biogenics; Cancer cell lines; Cancer cells; Cell culture; Cell death; Colon cancer; Copper oxide nanoparticles; Copper oxides; cytotoxicity; Diseases; electron microscopy; Energy dispersive spectroscopy; High resolution transmission electron microscopy; Mitochondria; Mitochondrial membrane potential; Molecular biology; Nanoparticles; Reactive oxygen species; ROS; Scanning electron microscopy; Synthesis (chemical); Synthesised; Therapeutic efficacy
• Online Access: View Fulltext in Publisher

 In the present study, pumpkin seed extract was used to synthesize copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) along with evaluating its anticancer activity using different molecular biology tools in the human colorectal cancer cell line (HCT-116). Morphological and structural properties of the biogenically synthesized CuO NPs were characterized by UV-visible spectrophotometry (UV-vis), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). For estimating the anticancer efficacy, 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide cytotoxicity, morphological alteration, reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation, and alterations in the mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) were determined. SEM and TEM data revealed the formation of spherical nanoparticles possessing an average size of 20 nm. The CuO NPs showed 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) at 25 μg/mL against the HCT-116 cell line. The treatment with IC50 concentration of CuO NPs showed significant shrinking, detachment, membrane blebbing, and shape distortion of cancer cells. Similarly, the IC50 dose of CuO NPs showed significantly early apoptosis in cancer cells compared to late apoptosis. The cancer cell line also showed a dose-dependent increase and decrease in ROS formation and MMP, respectively. The results obtained through various assays indicated significant anticancer efficacy of biogenically synthesized CuO NPs. Thus, further studies are recommended to validate our results using ex vivo and in vivo models. © 2022 Shams Tabrez et al., published by De Gruyter.