Design and Targeting of Silver-Copper Nanoparticles for the Anti-Cancer Activity in Cancer Cells

Background

silver, copper (Ag, Cu NPs) are metallic nanoparticles that have fascinated significant interest due to the multiplicity of their application in biological sciences. It was reported that silver or copper nanoparticles have anticancer activity in inhibition the proliferation of MCF-7. Therefore, the aim of the study, to use silver-copper alloy nanoparticles (Ag-Cu NPs) in order to have strong anti-cancer activity against human breast cancer cell line MCF-7 followed with minimum side effects on normal breast cells MCF-10-A.

Methods

Ag-Cu NPs are synthesized by using strong reducing reagents and characterized by using a high-resolution transmission electron microscope (HR-TEM). The cytotoxic effect of the dose-dependent Ag-Cu NPs against MCF-7 and MCF-10-A was envaulted in-vitro by MTT and AlamarBlue assays. The mechanism of inducing toxicity is not known hence apoptosis by flow cytometry and fluorescence inverted microscopy was evaluated. NPs are known to produce oxidative stress and activate proteases enzyme, Hence, reactive oxygen species (ROS) in mitochondrion were studied, followed with the activity of metalloprotease enzymes MMP2 and MPP9 were also studied by western blot.

Results

The results demonstrated that Ag-Cu NPs have high anticancer activity against MCF-7 and minimum side effects on MCF 10-A. The treatment of MCF-7 with Ag-Cu NPs, have inhibited cell viability in a dose-dependent manner followed with various concentration 5,10,15 and 20 g/mL. Furthermore, It has been noticed that the induction of necrosis on both cell lines treated with Ag-Cu NPs. ROS results showed that in MCF-7 cells treated with Ag-Cu NPs (70:30%) caused cell membrane disruption that leads to cell death. Western blot results demonstrated that due to the necrosis that leads to cell death in MCF-7 treated with Ag-Cu NPs (70:30%), an overexpression of MMP2 was also observed.

Conclusions

Synthesized Ag-Cu alloy NPs successfully inhibit the proliferation and cause anti-cancer activity against MCF-7 breast cancer cells comparing to MCF 10-A normal breast cells.