Bioinspired Nanotheranostic Agents: Synthesis, Surface Functionalization, and Antioxidant Potential

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Medicinal Chemistry

Background:

• Bioinspired synthesis offers a sustainable and economical approach to nanomaterial production.
• Noble metal nanoparticles hold significant promise for theranostic applications in medicine.
• Traditional chemical synthesis methods often involve multiple reagents and can be less environmentally friendly.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop noble metal nanotheranostic agents using a bioinspired synthetic route.
• To characterize the synthesized nanoparticles and evaluate their antioxidant potential.
• To engineer the nanoparticles for multimodal diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Main Methods:

• Screening of medicinal plants for nanomaterial synthesis, focusing on Potentilla fulgens (PF) and Camellia sinensis (CS).
• Characterization of biosynthesized nanoparticles using absorption spectroscopy, FTIR, SEM, and TEM.
• In vitro antioxidant assays to determine the antioxidant capacity of the nanomaterials.
• Surface functionalization of nanoparticles with imaging and therapeutic moieties to create theranostic nanoagents.

Main Results:

• Potentilla fulgens and Camellia sinensis demonstrated high yields in producing metallic nanoparticles.
• The plant-mediated nanoparticles exhibited significant antioxidant properties due to surface phytochemicals (flavonoids, catechins).
• Successful engineering of nanoparticle surfaces with imaging and therapeutic agents, confirmed by drug loading studies.

Conclusions:

• Bioinspired synthesis using PF and CS provides an efficient and advantageous route for creating metallic nanoparticles.
• The resulting nanotheranostic agents possess inherent antioxidant capabilities and are suitable for further derivatization.
• These bio-inspired multimodal nanoprobes represent promising tools for advanced biomedical research, diagnostics, and therapeutics.