Silver Nanoparticles Nanocarriers, Synthesis and Toxic Effect on Cervical Cancer Cell Lines

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been suggested as a potential tool for the anticancer treatment, but their pharmacological effect has not been tested in vivo because of their high reactivity and adverse effects. In this study, we developed AgNPs of 5 ± 2 nm of diameter through the chemical reduction of silver nitrate (AgNO₃) with dextrose, employing gelatin as a surfactant agent, and encapsulated them in nanocarriers with a biocompatible surface based on polyethylene glycol through a modification of the emulsion solvent-evaporation technique. AgNPs nanocarriers (AgNPs-NT) showed diameters between 30 nm and 120 nm in dry samples and from 40 nm to 250 nm in aqueous solution. Different doses of free and encapsulated AgNPs were evaluated in vitro on the cervical cancer-derived cell lines HeLa and CaSki, by flow cytometry studies at 24 h, employing propidium iodide (PI) and carboxyfluorescein diacetate succinimidyl ester (CFSE) as reporter molecules. Both free and encapsulated AgNPs were toxic for both cell lines, inducing important decrements on the cell viability compared with cisplatin (PC, 0.250 mM) and the negative control (NCtrl) comprising only the cell culture media, the vehicle of the AgNPs (0.360 mM), and the vehicle of the AgNPs-NT (1.089 mM). In both cases (HeLa and CaSki cells), AgNPs-NT seem to be less effective than free AgNPs, but this AgNPs-NT had a biocompatible surface, adequate size, and high toxicity observed in vitro.