Comprehensive Therapeutic Assessment of Silybum marianum-Loaded Graphene Oxide Nanoparticles: Multifunctional Bioactivities and Controlled Drug Releas
Silybum marianum; graphene oxide; green synthesis; leukemia; apoptosis; DPPH; egg albumin denaturation; alpha-amylase inhibition; SM-GO NP ; Korsmeyer-Peppas
AuthorsAbstractLeukemia is a blood cancer that is genuinely hard to treat because the cancer cells already move through the bloodstream on their own without needing extra mutations to spread. On top of that in countries like India late diagnosis and limited access to proper treatment makes things worse. This study looked at whether graphene oxide nanoparticles made using Silybum marianum seed extract (Sm-GO NPs) could work as a multifunctional therapeutic agent against human leukemia cells while also showing antioxidant anti-inflammatory and antidiabetic properties. The nanoparticles were prepared through a simple green synthesis route using aqueous plant extract and were characterised using FT-IR spectroscopy and SEM imaging. Anticancer activity was tested using MTT assay along with morphological analysis and AO/EtBr fluorescence staining to confirm apoptosis. Antioxidant potential was measured by DPPH assay and antiinflammatory activity was assessed through heat-induced egg albumin denaturation. For antidiabetic screening alpha-amylase inhibition assay was used and drug release behaviour was studied in a SM-GO NP system at physiological pH. The results showed that Sm-GO NPs had clear cytotoxic effects against leukemia cells with an IC50 of 48.3 µg /mL at 48 h. AO/EtBr staining confirmed that cell death was happening through apoptosis with an apoptotic index of 48.3% at the IC50 concentration rising to 67.3% at 100 µg /mL. DPPH radical scavenging gave an IC50 of 66 µg /mLwhich was close to ascorbic acid (62.8 µg /mL) and roughly 2.18 times better than free SM extract. Anti-inflammatory inhibition reached 72.4% at 100 µg /mL which was comparable to diclofenac sodium. Alpha-amylase inhibition IC50 was 65.5 µg /mL approaching the standard drug acarbose (58.4 µg /mL). Drug release from the SM-GO NP followed anomalous nonFickian transport described best by the Korsmeyer-Peppas model (r2 = 0.943 and n = 0.64) with an initial burst of around 37% at 1 h and near complete release by 24 h. Overall these findings suggest that Sm-GO NPs are a promising plant-based nanocarrier system with broad therapeutic potential and further in vitro work is needed to take this forward.
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