Biosynthesis, characterization and evaluation of anti-bone carcinoma, cytotoxicity, and antioxidant properties of gold nanoparticles mediated by Citrus reticulata seed aqueous extract: Introducing a novel chemotherapeutic drug

Metallic nanoparticles especially gold nanoparticles are used for treating different disorders, such as carcinoma. In recent years, many chemotherapeutic supplements or drugs have been formulated by gold nanoparticles. In the present study, we prepared and formulated a modern chemotherapeutic drug with gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) containing Citrus reticulata seed aqueous extract for treating bone carcinoma. Characterization of AuNPs was done by FE-SEM, FT-IR, EDS, UV-vis, and TEM. In the FT-IR test, the presence of many antioxidant compounds with related bonds caused the excellent condition for reducing gold in the gold nanoparticles. In UV-vis, the clear peak in the wavelength of 531 nm showed the formation of gold nanoparticles. Also, in the FE-SEM and TEM images, the gold nanoparticles were spherical with an average size of 11.14 to 32.76 nm. For investigating the antioxidant properties of HAuCl4, C. reticulata aqueous extract, and gold nanoparticles, the DPPH test was used in the presence of butylated hydroxytoluene as the positive control. The gold nanoparticles inhibited half of the DPPH molecules at the concentration of 87 mu g/mL. MTT assay was used on human bone rhabdomyosarcoma (A-673), human bone Ewing's sarcoma (CADO-ES1), human bone osteosarcoma (MG-63), and human bone chondrosarcoma (CH-3573) cell lines for comparing the anti-bone carcinoma effects of HAuCl4, C. reticulata, and AuNPs. Gold nanoparticles had very low cell viability and anti-bone carcinoma properties dose-dependently against A-673, CADO-ES1, MG-63 and CH-3573 cell lines. The best result of the anti-bone carcinoma properties of AuNPs against the above cell lines was observed in the case of the SCaBER cell line. According to the above results, the gold nanoparticles containing C. reticulata seed aqueous extract may be administrated in humans for treating bone carcinoma.