Biosynthesis, Antimicrobial and Cytotoxic Effect of Silver Nanoparticles Using a Novel Nocardiopsis sp. MBRC-1

The biosynthesis of nanoparticles has been proposed as a cost effective environmental friendly alternative to chemical and physical methods. Microbial synthesis of nanoparticles is under exploration due to wide biomedical applications, research interest in nanotechnology and microbial biotechnology. In the present study, an ecofriendly process for the synthesis of nanoparticles using a novel Nocardiopsis sp. MBRC-1 has been attempted. We used culture supernatant of Nocardiopsis sp. MBRC-1 for the simple and cost effective green synthesis of silver nanoparticles. The reduction of silver ions occurred when silver nitrate solution was treated with the Nocardiopsis sp. MBRC-1 culture supernatant at room temperature. The nanoparticles were characterized by UV-visible, TEM, FE-SEM, EDX, FTIR, and XRD spectroscopy. The nanoparticles exhibited an absorption peak around 420 nm, a characteristic surface plasmon resonance band of silver nanoparticles. They were spherical in shape with an average particle size of 45 ± 0.15 nm. The EDX analysis showed the presence of elemental silver signal in the synthesized nanoparticles. The FTIR analysis revealed that the protein component in the form of enzyme nitrate reductase produced by the isolate in the culture supernatant may be responsible for reduction and as capping agents. The XRD spectrum showed the characteristic Bragg peaks of 1 2 3, 2 0 4, 0 4 3, 1 4 4, and 3 1 1 facets of the face centered cubic silver nanoparticles and confirms that these nanoparticles are crystalline in nature. The prepared silver nanoparticles exhibited strong antimicrobial activity against bacteria and fungi. Cytotoxicity of biosynthesized AgNPs against in vitro human cervical cancer cell line (HeLa) showed a dose-response activity. IC(50) value was found to be 200 μg/mL of AgNPs against HeLa cancer cells. Further studies are needed to elucidate the toxicity and the mechanism involved with antimicrobial and anticancer activity of the synthesized AgNPs as nanomedicine.