Green synthesis: In-vitro anticancer activity of copper oxide nanoparticles against human cervical carcinoma cells

Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuO NPs) were synthesized by a green route using an aqueous black bean extract and characterized by XRD, FT-IR, XPS, Raman spectroscopy, DLS, TEM, SAED, SEM, and EDX. The synthesized CuO NPs were spherical in shape, and the XRD results show the average size of the NPs was ∼26.6 nm. The cytotoxic effect of the CuO NPs was determined by sulforhodamine-B assay. Mitochondria-derived reactive oxygen species (ROS) were increased and initiated lipid peroxidation of the liposomal membrane, which regulates several signaling pathways and influences the cytokinetic movements of cells. Mitochondrial fragmentation disruption assay confirmed the alteration in the mitochondrial structure after incubation with nanoparticles. In addition, clonogenic assay confirmed the inability of NPs incubated cancer cells to proliferate well. Our experimental results show that the CuO NPs can induce apoptosis and suppress the proliferation of HeLa cells.