Multifunctional biosynthesized silver nanoparticles exhibiting excellent antimicrobial potential against multi-drug resistant microbes along with remarkable anticancerous properties

Abstract This study demonstrates the therapeutic potential of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), which were biosynthesized using the extracts of Citrus maxima plant. Characterization through UV–Vis spectrophotometry, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray Diffraction (XRD) and Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) confirmed the formation of AgNps in nano-size range. These nanoparticles exhibited enhanced antioxidative activity and showed commendable antimicrobial activity against wide range of microbes including multi-drug resistant bacteria that were later confirmed by TEM. These particles exhibited minimal toxicity when cytotoxicity study was performed on normal human lung fibroblast cell line as well as human red blood cells. It was quite noteworthy that these particles showed remarkable cytotoxicity on human fibrosarcoma and mouse melanoma cell line (B16-F10). Additionally, the apoptotic topographies of B16-F10 cells treated with AgNps were confirmed by using acridine orange and ethidium bromide dual dye staining, caspase-3 assay, DNA fragmentation assay followed by cell cycle analysis using fluorescence-activated cell sorting. Taken together, these results advocate promising potential of the biosynthesized AgNps for their use in therapeutic applications.