Synthesis and Characterization of Chemically and Green-Synthesized Silver Oxide Particles for Evaluation of Antiviral...

Silver oxide (Ag₂O) particles are wonderful candidates due to their unique properties, and their use in a wide range of research, industrial and biomedical applications is rapidly increasing. This makes it fundamental to develop simple, environmentally friendly methods with possible scaling. Herein, sodium borohydride and Datura innoxia leaf extract were applied as chemical and biological stabilizing and reducing agents to develop Ag₂O particles. The primary aim was to evaluate the anticancer and antiviral activity of Ag₂O particles prepared via two methods. XRD, UV-visible and SEM analyses were used to examine the crystallite structure, optical properties and morphology, respectively. The resulting green-synthesized Ag₂O particles exhibited small size, spherically agglomerated shape, and high anticancer and antiviral activities compared to chemically synthesized Ag₂O particles. The MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5 diphenyltetrazolium-bromide) assay of green-synthesized Ag₂O particles showed high anticancer activity against MCF-7 cells with IC₅₀ = 17.908 µg/mL compared to chemically synthesized Ag₂O particles with IC₅₀ = 23.856 µg/mL. The antiviral activity of green-synthesized Ag₂O particles and chemically synthesized Ag₂O particles was also evaluated by a plaque-forming assay, and green-synthesized Ag₂O particles showed higher antiviral ability with IC₅₀ = 0.618 µg/mL as compared to chemically synthesized Ag₂O particles with IC₅₀ = 6.129 µg/mL. We propose the use of green-synthesized Ag₂O particles in cancer treatment and drug delivery.