Abstract

Nanotechnology is an interesting way to produce and deal with fascinating features of materials. Metal nanoparticles offer a vast spectrum of potential applications in medicine and pharmaceutical sciences due to advances in nanotechnology research. This study was aimed to evaluate the anticancer properties of gold-silver (Au-Ag) alloy nanoparticles, which were synthesised using a green method by Galega officinalis ethanolic extract. The antitumour activity of biosynthesised nanoparticles has been assessed in vitro using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay on DU-145 and HT-29, prostate and colon cell lines, respectively. The Au-Ag alloy nanoparticles activity to inhibit the growth of cancer cell lines was recorded in terms of decrease in viable cell count in comparison with the control value. The spherical Au-Ag alloy nanoparticles with average size of 100 nm diameter were synthesised. The growth inhibition of the human prostate (DU-145) and colon carcinoma cell line (HT-29) has been found to be dose dependent. The calculated IC50 for the DU-145 cell line was 95.78 g/ml after 24 h and for the HT-29 cell line was 70.66 mu g/ml after 48 h. The results of this study suggest that Au-Ag alloy nanoparticles could be as an active substance against tumour cell lines and may be a beneficial treatment for cancer.