Antibiotic potentiation and anti-cancer competence through bio-mediated ZnO nanoparticles

Zinc Oxide (ZnO) is currently used in nano-cosmeceuticals and nano-pharmaceuticals topically due to their multifunctional efficiency irrespective of the synthetic method. Bio-reducers are cosmopolitically famed to attain stable, reliable, and toxic free synthesis. Thus, the objective of the current study is to prepare ZnO NPs in a greener approach using Annona squamosa (AS) leaf extract and to evaluate their antibiotic potentiation capacity and anticancer activity. The novel synthetic process of ZnO NPs was performed without using any chemicals (reducing or stabilizing agents) or high temperature processing under continuous stirring and refluxion in the presence of oxygen environment. AS have renowned phytochemicals with medicinal properties. Therefore, the mounting of secondary metabolites onto ZnO NPs during synthesis as reducing, stabilizing, capping agents may impart additional biomedical efficacy. The ZnO NPs were prepared with the assessment of stabilization (characteristic peak at 375 nm) from absorbance spectra. Further, SEM, TEM, XRD, FTIR, and Raman analysis of AS-ZnO NPs were performed to elucidate the size, shape, nature, chemical structure and composition. The characterization techniques revealed particles of 20-50 nm size, hexagonal shaped crystalline structure with diverse phytochemicals and functional groups. In addition, AS-ZnO NPs were investigated for antibacterial activity along with antibiotic potentiating capability through combinational assay. Furthermore, the anticancer potential of AS-ZnO NPs was evaluated against HeLa cell line along with assessment of biocompatibility on HEK-293 cell line using MTT assay. Based on the findings, our study exploits green-synthesized ZnO NPs as an effective strategy for potentiation of antibiotic activity and anticancer activity in a biocompatible perspective.