Abstract
Silver Phosphate, Ag
3
PO
4
, being a highly capable clinical molecule, an ultrasonic method was employed to synthesize the M-Ag
3
PO
4,
(M = Se, Ag, Ta) nanoparticles which were evaluated for antibacterial and cytotoxicity activities post-characterization.
Escherichia coli
and
Staphylococcus aureus
were used for antibacterial testing and the effects of sonication on bacterial growth with sub-MIC values of M-Ag
3
PO
4
nanoparticles were examined. The effect of M-Ag
3
PO
4
nanoparticles on human colorectal carcinoma cells (HCT-116) and human cervical carcinoma cells (HeLa cells) was examined by MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide) assay and DAPI (4′,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) staining. Additionally, we analyzed the effect of nanoparticles on normal and non-cancerous human embryonic kidney cells (HEK-293). Ag-Ag
3
PO
4
exhibited enhanced antibacterial activity followed by Ta-Ag
3
PO
4,
Ag
3
PO
4
, and Se-Ag
3
PO
4
nanoparticles against
E. coli
. Whereas the order of antibacterial activity against
Staphylococcus aureus
was Ag
3
PO
4
> Ag-Ag
3
PO
4
> Ta-Ag
3
PO
4
> Se-Ag
3
PO
4
, respectively. Percentage inhibition of
E. coli
was 98.27, 74.38, 100, and 94.2%, while percentage inhibition of
S. aureus
was 25.53, 80.28, 99.36, and 20.22% after treatment with Ag
3
PO
4
, Se-Ag
3
PO
4
, Ag-Ag
3
PO
4
, and Ta-Ag
3
PO
4,
respectively. The MTT assay shows a significant decline in the cell viability after treating with M-Ag
3
PO
4
nanoparticles. The IC
50
values for Ag
3
PO
4,
Se-Ag
3
PO
4,
Ag-Ag
3
PO
4
, and Ta-Ag
3
PO
4
on HCT-116 were 39.44, 28.33, 60.24, 58.34 µg/mL; whereas for HeLa cells, they were 65.25, 61.27, 75.52, 72.82 µg/mL, respectively. M-Ag
3
PO
4
nanoparticles did not inhibit HEK-293 cells. Apoptotic assay revealed that the numbers of DAPI stained cells were significantly lower in the M-Ag
3
PO
4
-treated cells versus control.