“Theranostic” role of bile salt-capped silver nanoparticles - gall stone/pigment stone disruption and anticancer activity

- 'Theranostic' AgNPs synthesized in NaDC micelles.
- The AgNPs show green fluorescence.
- AgNPs disrupt bilirubin aggregates-implications for disruption of gall/pigment stone.
- The AgNPs are cytotoxic towards breast cancer cells.
- Bilirubin aggregates show enhanced red fluorescence - important for cancer diagnosis.

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have been synthesized in situ in micelles formed by the bile salt sodium deoxycholate (NaDC). The AgNPs exhibit “green” fluorescence. It has been shown in the present study that they can disrupt the components of gall stones/pigment stones. This unique ability of the AgNPs has been observed upon detailed study of the interaction between the endobiotic pigment bilirubin (BR) and bile salt (NaDC). In addition, these AgNPs show significant cytotoxicity towards the breast cancer cells (MCF-7). Thus the AgNPs synthesized in this work show important physiological activity and can serve as prospective “Theranostic Materials” in future. Their green fluorescence bears relevance to future diagnostic applications while their anticancer activity and disruptive action upon BR aggregates in bile salt micelles is extremely important for therapeutic purpose. This is the first report of the use of metal nanoparticles in disruption of components of gall stones/pigment stones and thus the present work has very important physiological significance. The detailed spectral studies indicate that bile salts increase the dimerization of BR which could be linked to increased solubilisation of BR in bile salt media and consequent bile stone/pigment stone formation. Importantly, an increase in red fluorescence was observed (upon dimerization of BR), which is important for cancer detection and studying the metabolism of biological tissues.

Graphical Abstract104