Biomedical Applications of Biosynthesized Gold Nanoparticles from Cyanobacteria: an Overview

Recently there had been a great interest in biologically synthesized nanoparticles (NPs) as potential therapeutic agents. The shortcomings of conventional non-biological synthesis methods such as generation of toxic byproducts, energy consumptions, and involved cost have shifted the attention towards green syntheses of NPs. Among noble metal NPs, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are the most extensively used ones, owing to the unique physicochemical properties. AuNPs have potential therapeutic applications, as those are synthesized with biomolecules as reducing and stabilizing agent(s). The green method of AuNP synthesis is simple, eco-friendly, non-toxic, and cost-effective with the use of renewable energy sources. Among all taxa, cyanobacteria have attracted considerable attention as nano-biofactories, due to cellular uptake of heavy metals from the environment. The cellular bioactive pigments, enzymes, and polysaccharides acted as reducing and coating agents during the process of biosynthesis. However, cyanobacteria-mediated AuNPs have potential biomedical applications, namely, targeted drug delivery, cancer treatment, gene therapy, antimicrobial agent, biosensors, and imaging.