Singapore-Delft Water Alliance, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Singapore-Delft Water Alliance, National University of Singapore, Singapore; Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, National University of Singapore.
Ecotoxicol Environ Saf. 2015 Apr;114:232-40. doi: 10.1016/j.ecoenv.2014.03.020. Epub 2014 May 14.
Biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) has become an attractive area of research as it is environmentally benign. The toxicity of AuNPs synthesized by chemical routes has been widely studied. However, little is known about the toxicity associated with the biological synthesis of AuNPs. The present study was carried out to synthesize AuNPs using star anise (Illicium verum; a commercially available spice in abundance)and evaluate its toxicity using human epithelial lung cells (A549) in comparison with AuNPs synthesized by the traditional chemical methods (using sodium citrate and sodium borohydride). Apart from cell viability, markers of oxidative stress (reduced glutathione) and cell death (caspases) were also evaluated to understand the mechanisms of toxicity. Cell viability was observed to be 65.7 percent and 72.3 percent in cells exposed to chemically synthesized AuNPs at the highest dose (200nM) as compared to 80.2 percent for biologically synthesized AuNPs. Protective coating/capping of AuNPs by various polyphenolic compounds present in star anise extract appears to be a major contributor to lower toxicity observed in biologically synthesized AuNPs.
金纳米粒子（AuNPs）的生物合成已成为一个备受关注的研究领域，因为它具有环境友好性。化学合成法制备的 AuNPs 的毒性已得到广泛研究。然而，关于与 AuNPs 的生物合成相关的毒性知之甚少。本研究使用八角茴香（Illicium verum；一种商业上大量供应的香料）来合成 AuNPs，并使用人上皮肺细胞（A549）对其进行毒性评估，与传统化学方法（使用柠檬酸钠和硼氢化钠）合成的 AuNPs 进行比较。除了细胞活力外，还评估了氧化应激标志物（还原型谷胱甘肽）和细胞死亡标志物（半胱天冬酶），以了解毒性的机制。与化学合成的 AuNPs 相比，暴露于最高剂量（200nM）的化学合成的 AuNPs 的细胞活力分别为 65.7％和 72.3％，而生物合成的 AuNPs 为 80.2％。八角茴香提取物中存在的各种多酚化合物对 AuNPs 的保护性涂层/封端似乎是生物合成的 AuNPs 观察到的毒性较低的主要原因。
