Bio-fabrication of silver nanoparticles by phycocyanin, characterization, in vitro anticancer activity against breast cancer cell line and in vivo cytotxicity

In recent decades, researchers were attracted towards cyanobacterial components which are potential low-cost biological reagents for silver nanoparticle biosynthesis. This article describes the biological synthesis of silver nanoparticles using a proteinaceous pigment phycocyanin extracted from Nostoc linckia as reducing agent. The synthesized silver nanoparticles have a surface plasmon resonance band centered at 425 nm. Face-centered central composite design used for optimization of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) biosynthesis using phycocyanin. The maximum AgNPs biosynthesis obtained using the optimized four variables, initial pH level (10), AgNO3 concentration (5 mM), phycocyanin pigment concentration (1 mg/mL) and incubation period (24 h) was 1100.025 μg/mL. The TEM analysis of AgNPs showed spherical nanoparticles with mean size between 9.39 to 25.89 nm. FTIR spectra showed major peaks of proteins involved in AgNPs biosynthesis by identifying different functional groups involved in effective capping of AgNPs. The biosynthesized AgNPs significantly inhibited the growth of medically important pathogenic Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus), Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, E. coli and Klebsiella pneumonia). The synthesized AgNPs exhibited effective cytotoxic activity against MCF-7 and the inhibitory concentration (IC50) was recorded at 27.79 ± 2.3 μg/mL. The in vivo studies clearly indicated that AgNPs has a capacity to inhibit the growth of tumor in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma bearing mice.