Biogenic gold nanoparticles induce cell cycle arrest through oxidative stress and sensitize mitochondrial membranes in A549 lung cancer cells

The present study aims to find a facile, green and more yielding approach for the synthesis of high stability gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with a monodispersed nature using an aqueous extract of Sesuvium portulacastrum L. The synthesis and yield of AuNPs under different pH values, temperatures and times were determined using a UV-spectrophotometer. A morphological study shows that the synthesized AuNPs are mostly spherical in shape with an average particle size of similar to 37 nm and these results were compared with the particle size acquired using DLS and XRD data by the Scherrer formula. The selected area electron diffraction pattern indicated a crystalline nature of the AuNPs that was further confirmed using XRD analysis. In the present study, we carried out in vitro analysis to demonstrate the anticancer efficiency of AuNPs against an A549 lung cancer cell line and the results showed that an IC50 dose effectively induces apoptosis and necrosis of A549 cells. Generation of oxidative stress and reactive oxygen species by AuNPs might induce the sensitization of the mitochondrial membrane that leads to triggering the apoptosis pathway. Furthermore, cell cycle analysis showed that AuNPs arrest the cell cycle at the G0/G2 phase in A549 cells. Together, these results clearly show that biogenic synthesized AuNPs have been proven to have excellent anticancer activity against A549 cells and a lower toxicity against HBL100 cells.