Anti-proliferative activity of Gum kondagogu (Cochlospermum gossypium)-gold nanoparticle constructs on B16F10 melanoma cells: An in vitro model

•Gum kondagogu, a non-toxic biopolymer material mediated synthesis of GK-AuNPs.•GK-AuNPs activity was assessed by MTT, Flow cytometer, and confocal microscopy.•Mechanism of action is by activation of p53, caspase-9 and, ultimately caspase-3.

The present study has explored the reducing and capping potentials of gum kondagogu (GK) for the synthesis of gold nanoparticle constructs. The formation of gold nanoparticles was confirmed by UV- absorption, FTIR, AFM, SEM and TEM. The GK-AuNPs showed a characteristic absorption peak at 534 nm in UV spectra with the size range of 4.08-12.73 ± 0.75 nm. As a result of wide screening on the application of newly synthesized GK-AuNPs their anti-proliferative potential were discovered by MTT assay, confocal microscopy, flow cytometry and quantitative real time PCR techniques. MTT assay of synthesized GK-AuNPs exhibited IC50 concentration of 1.7 µg L−1 after 48 h. FACS analysis revealed that cell cycle gets arrested at G1 to S phase, with up-regulation of p53, caspase-3, caspase-9, PPARa and PPARb genes and down regulation of Bcl-2 and Bcl-x(K) genes, in B16F10 cells treated with GK-AuNPs confirming the anti-proliferative properties of the nanoparticles.

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