Green and Cost-Effective Synthesis of Metallic Nanoparticles by Algae: Safe Methods for Translational Medicine

Metal nanoparticles (NPs) have received much attention for potential applications in medicine (mainly in oncology, radiology and infectiology), due to their intriguing chemical, electronical, catalytical, and optical properties such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) effect. They also offer ease in controlled synthesis and surface modification (e.g., tailored properties conferred by capping/protecting agents including N-, P-, COOH-, SH-containing molecules and polymers such as thiol, disulfide, ammonium, amine, and multidentate carboxylate), which allows (i) tuning their size and shape (e.g., star-shaped and/or branched) (ii) improving their stability, monodispersity, chemical miscibility, and activity, (iii) avoiding their aggregation and oxidation over time, (iv) increasing their yield and purity. The bottom-up approach, where the metal ions are reduced in the NPs grown in the presence of capping ligands, has been widely used compared to the top-down approach. Besides the physical and chemical synthesis methods, the biological method is gaining much consideration. Indeed, several drawbacks have been reported for the synthesis of NPs via physical (e.g., irradiation, ultrasonication) and chemical (e.g., electrochemisty, reduction by chemicals such as trisodium citrate or ascorbic acid) methods (e.g., cost, and/ortoxicity due to use of hazardous solvents, low production rate, use of huge amount of energy). However, (organic or inorganic) eco-friendly NPs synthesis exhibits a sustainable, safe, and economical solution. Thereby, a relatively new trend for fast and valuable NPs synthesis from (live or dead) algae (i.e., microalgae, macroalgae and cyanobacteria) has been observed, especially because of its massive presence on the Earth’s crust and their unique properties (e.g., capacity to accumulate and reduce metallic ions, fast propagation). This article discusses the algal-mediated synthesis methods (either intracellularly or extracellularly) of inorganic NPs with special emphasis on the noblest metals, i.e., silver (Ag)- and gold (Au)-derived NPs. The key factors (e.g., pH, temperature, reaction time) that affect their biosynthesis process, stability, size, and shape are highlighted. Eventually, underlying molecular mechanisms, nanotoxicity and examples of major biomedical applications of these algal-derived NPs are presented.