Biofabrication of gold and silver nanoparticles for pharmaceutical applications

Nanotechnology is an important field of modern pharmaceutical research involves synthesis and development of various nanoparticles (NPs) with unique features and extensive pharmaceutical and medical applications in drug delivery, diagnostics, imaging, sensing, gene delivery, artificial implants and tissue engineering (1). Silver (Ag) NPs are currently used as an active drug in targeted drug delivery (2), gene delivery (3), and artificial implants (4) and as a diagnostic agent for imaging and sensing in different diseases at their early stages. Owing to their mutationresistant antimicrobial activity, they are Abstract Biofabrication by using fungi is an exciting recent interest to develop an eco-friendly production of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) for pharmaceutical applications. This study aimed to synthesize and characterize gold (Au) and silver (Ag) NPs by using Penicillium simplisimum. The fungus was grown in fluid czapek dox broth on shaker at 28 oC and 200 rpm for ten days. Then the supernatant was separated from the mycelia to convert HAuCl4 and AgNO3 solution into Au and Ag NPs separately. After 24 hours, synthesized Au and Ag NPs were characterized by using UV-Visible Spectroscopy as well as Photon Correlation spectroscopy (PCS) involves Polydispersity Index (PDI) and zeta potential. The UV-Visible Spectroscopy analysis revealed a plasmon bond peak around 533 nm and 400 nm suggesting formation of Au and Ag NPs, respectively. Furthermore, the PCS analysis showed an average diameter of 68 nm and 76 nm with PDI value of 0.2 and 0.23 for Au and Ag NPs, successively, which demonstrated that the nanoparticles formed with fairly well-defined dimensions and good monodispersity. Besides, a negative zeta potential were found for nanoparticles indicating their stability in the solution. The current approach suggests that the rapid synthesis of nanoparticles would be suitable for developing a green process for mass scale production. Besides, we believe that development of ecofriendly process for the formulation of metallic NPs is an important step in the field of application of nanotechnology and its optimization may make it a potential procedure for industrial production of NPs.