Graphene based hydrogel silver nano-composites for antibacterial and antitumor applications: In vitro evaluation

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Women for Art, Science and Education, Ain Shams University, Héliopolis, Cairo, Egypt.

2 Chemistry Department, Faculty of Women for Art, Science and Education, Ain Shams University, Héliopolis, Cairo, Egypt.

3 Polymers and Pigments Department, National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

The efficiency of most cancer therapies and antibiotics is restricted due to several issues, including medication resistance and non-specific negative effects. Due to their tunable properties, hydrogels based on graphene derivative and silver nano-particles (Ag-NPs) have been employed to overcome these limitations. In this manuscript, we synthesized gelatin methacryloyl (Gel-MA) to combine with functional nano-materials. Reduced graphene oxide (rGO) was synthesized by utilising ascorbic acid as a green reductant to form a composite with Gel-MA without affecting its unique characteristics. The prepared rGO and nano-composite hydrogels were characterized by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier Transform Infra-Red Spectroscopy (FT-IR), UV–Visible Spectrophotometry (UV–Vis), Raman, and Energy Dispersive-X-ray (EDX) Spectroscopy. The ninhydrin assay was used to quantify the degree of methacrylation. We found that the nano-composite swelled up to 2444% due to the high porosity of the hydrogel. The results demonstrated that the nanocomposite hydrogel showed higher antimicrobial activities than virgin (Gel-MA). The cytotoxicity of Gel-MA/rGO and Gel-MA/rGO/Ag composites against human lung cancer (A549) cells was evaluated using MTT assay. The Gel-MA/rGO/Ag composite showed remarkable cytotoxicity with an IC50 of 27µg/ml towards A549 cells compared with 109µg/ml of Gel-MA/rGO.

Keywords

Journal of Scientific Research in Science

Articles in Press, Corrected Proof
Available Online from 20 December 2023

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