A Comparative Study of Cancer Cells Susceptibility to Silver Nanoparticles Produced by Electron Beam

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have a wide range of bioactivity, which is highly dependent on particle size, shape, stabilizer, and production method. Here, we present the results of studies of AgNPs cytotoxic properties obtained by irradiation treatment of silver nitrate solution and various stabilizers by accelerating electron beam in a liquid medium.

The results of studies of morphological characteristics of silver nanoparticles were obtained by transmission electron microscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, and dynamic light scattering measurements. MTT test, alamar blue test, flow cytometry, and fluorescence microscopy were used to study the anti-cancer properties. As biological objects for standard tests, adhesive and suspension cell cultures of normal and tumor origin, including prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, breast cancer, colon cancer, neuroblastoma, and leukemia, were studied.

The results showed that the silver nanoparticles obtained by irradiation with polyvinylpyrrolidone and collagen hydrolysate are stable in solutions. Samples with different stabilizers were characterized by a wide average size distribution from 2 to 50 nm and low zeta potential from -7.3 to +12.4 mV. All AgNPs formulations showed a dose-dependent cytotoxic effect on tumor cells. It has been established that the particles obtained with the combination of polyvinylpyrrolidone/collagen hydrolysate have a relatively more pronounced cytotoxic effect in comparison to samples stabilized with only collagen or only polyvinylpyrrolidone. The minimum inhibitory concentrations for nanoparticles were less than 1 μg/mL for various types of tumor cells. It was found that neuroblastoma (SH-SY5Y) is the most susceptible, and ovarian cancer (SKOV-3) is the most resistant to the action of silver nanoparticles. The activity of the AgNPs formulation prepared with a mixture of PVP and PH studied in this work was higher that activity of other AgNPs formulations reported in the literature by about 50 times.

The results indicate that the AgNPs formulations synthesized with an electron beam and stabilized with polyvinylpyrrolidone and protein hydrolysate deserve deep study for their further use in selective cancer treatment without harming healthy cells in the patient organism.