Green synthesis of gold nanoparticles for staining human cervical cancer cells and DNA binding assay

•Green synthesis of gold nanoparticles (GNPs) using polysorbates.•GNPs can dislodge bound dye from DNA.•GNPs stain HeLa cells at micromolar concentrations.•GNPs are non-cytotoxic and maintain cell viability.

Gold nanoparticles have been functionalized by non-ionic surfactants (polysorbates) used in pharmaceutical formulations. This results in the formation of more well-dispersed gold nanoparticles (GNPs) than the GNPs formed in neat water. The synthesized GNPs show good temporal stability. The synthesis conditions are mild and environmentally benign. The GNPs can bind to ct-DNA and displace bound dye molecules. The DNA-binding assay is significant as it preliminarily indicated that DNA–GNP conjugates can be formed. Such conjugates are extremely promising for applications in nanobiotechnology. The GNPs can also stain the human cervical cancer (HeLa) cells over a wide concentration range while remaining non-cytotoxic, thus providing a non invasive cell staining method. This result is very promising as we observe staining of HeLa cells at very low GNP concentrations (1 μM) while the cell viability is retained even at 10-fold higher GNP concentrations.

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