Phytosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using Artemisia marschalliana Sprengel aerial part extract and assessment of their antioxidant, anticancer, and antibacterial properties
Authors: Farinaz Ghanbar
Seyed Ataollah Sadat Shandiz
Amir Mirzaie
Mohammad Raouf Darvish
Soheil Salehi
Mohsen Jafari
Mehdi Shafiee Ardestani
Journal: International Journal of Nanomedicine (2016)
Discipline: PHARMACOLOGY & TOXICOLOGY
Keywords: Artemisia marschalliana Sprengel; antibacterial; anticancer; silver nanoparticles.

Abstract:  A rapid phytosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using an extract from the aerial parts of Artemisia marschalliana Sprengel was investigated in this study. The synthesized AgNPs using A. marschalliana extract was analyzed by UV-visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and further characterized by transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, zeta potential, and energy-dispersive spectroscopy. Characteristic absorption bands of AgNPs were found near 430 nm in the UV-vis spectrum. Energy-dispersive spectroscopy analysis of AgNPs in the energy range 2-4 keV confirmed the silver signal due to surface plasmon resonance. Scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy results revealed that the AgNPs were mostly spherical with an average size ranging from 5 nm to 50 nm. The zeta potential value of -31 mV confirmed the stability of the AgNPs. AgNPs produced using the aqueous A. marschalliana extract might serve as a potent in vitro antioxidant, as revealed by 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl hydrazyl assay. The present study demonstrates the anticancer properties of phytosynthesized AgNPs against human gastric carcinoma AGS cells. AgNPs exerted a dose-dependent inhibitory effect on the viability of cells. Real-time polymerase chain reaction was used for the investigation of Bax and Bcl-2 gene expression in cancer and normal cell lines. Our findings show that the mRNA levels of pro-apoptotic Bax gene expression were significantly upregulated, while the expression of anti-apoptotic Bcl-2 was declined in cells treated with AgNPs compared to normal cells. In addition, flow cytometric analysis showed that the number of early and late apoptotic AGS cells was significantly enhanced following treatment with AgNPs as compared to untreated cells. In addition, the AgNPs showed strong antibacterial properties against tested pathogenic bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus cereus, Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Based on the obtained data, we suggest that phytosynthesized AgNPs are good alternatives in the treatment of diseases because of the presence of bioactive agents. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 The authors state that u201cfour proteins of unknown function that are encoded by KPTN, ITFG2, **C12orf66** and SZT2 and have predicted molecular weights of 48, 49, **50** and 380 kDau201d It called my attention as how variable it is the size of C12orf66 IP in the performed experiments; (i) some a little higher or exactly at 50kda (Fig. 1C, 1E), (ii) a little lower than 50kda (Fig. 1D, Extended Data Fig. 1B C, Extended Fig. 3E), or (iii) much lower than 50kda (Extended Data Fig. 1A). The last one is of greater concern, but if authors could check it please. ![file] , 
 This is Rachel Wolfson, first author on this paper. There are many variables that can influence how proteins migrate through gels, including the percentage of the gel, buffer conditions (e.g. salt and detergent concentrations), the voltage at which the gel is run, and the total protein concentration. We try to keep these variables as consistent as possible across experiments, but sometimes they do vary, and these variations can lead to proteins migrating through gels in slightly different ways. We have carefully validated all our antibodies in many different conditions using knock out cells and overexpression lines. ,