Synthesis of β-Glucan Nanoparticles from Red Algae-Derived β-Glucan for Potential Biomedical Applications

The present study highlights/demonstrates facile synthesis of β-Glucan nanoparticles (β-GluNPs) that can be used in the prevention of breast cancer and other infectious diseases. Moreover, this method is inexpensive and shows effectivity towards different biological applications. Further, the characterization of synthesized β-GluNPs was exclusively confirmed through UV-Vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), dynamic light scattering (DLS), zeta potential, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), high resolution-transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM), and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) analysis. The synthesized β-GluNPs were further confirmed by FT-IR spectroscopy. The HR-TEM results demonstrated that the formation of polydispersed nanoparticles with a mean size of 20 ± 5 nm. The hydrostatic zeta potential was - 22.7 mV, which indicated their colloidal stability. The XRD pattern revealed the crystalline nature of the nanoparticles. Besides, β-GluNPs showed better antibacterial activity against the tested pathogens. The apoptosis and DNA fragmentation observed to be IC₅₀ 42.5 µg/ml of the β-GluNPs. The DNA fragmentation assay indicated the selective inhibition of the MCF-7 cell line by DNA damage. Hence, the study reports that the β-GluNPs have a potential to be used as a promising alternative drug against human breast cancer.