Green Synthesis and Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles from Methanolic Extracts of Endophytic Fungus and Evaluation of its Biological Activities

Abstract

Metal nanoparticles (NPs) have attracted the interest of scientific community due to their fascinating applications in the field of biology, material science and medicine. Silver nanoparticles have attracted particular interest, compared with other NPs, as their useful properties are achievable due to biocompatibility. The use of plant extract for the green synthesis of nanoparticles is valuable due to the ease of scale-up and less biohazardous nature. The synthesis of NPs by biological method involving green-chemistry, eco-friendly based approach, make use of the active compounds of plants, bacteria, fungi, actinomycetes, yeast and algae.

Endophytes are microorganisms that colonize inside the plant parts without causing any negative impact on the host and form an important component in the plant-micro ecosystem. Endophytes are becoming a promising source of novel biomolecules with wide therapeutic applications. Metabolites isolated from endophytes have shown potential use in agriculture, industries and modern medicine such as antibiotics, antimycotics, immunosuppressant and anticancer compounds. The identification of such endophytic fungi is considered beneficial as it helps conserve the plant biodiversity.

The objective of the present study is to explore the anti-cancer potential of silver nanoparticles obtained by green synthesis using the endophytic fungus isolated from the medicinal plant Abutilon indicum against AtT 20 Mouse pituitary cell lines.  The synthesized nanoparticles will be characterized using UV, FTIR and TEM. Further, to identify the potential therapeutic effect of AgNPs in AtT 20 cells, preliminary MTT assay will be carried out identify the cytotoxic effect. Further cell cycle analysis and apoptotic assays will be carried out using flow cytometry. The result from these studies should provide novel insight leading to development of potential AgNPs based therapeutics against cancers.