Harvesting the Power of Green Synthesis: Gold Nanoparticles Tailored for Prostate Cancer Therapy

Biosynthetic gold nanoparticles (bAuNPs) present a promising avenue for enhancing bio-compatibility and offering an economically and environmentally responsible alternative to traditional production methods, achieved through a reduction in the use of hazardous chemicals. While the potential of bAuNPs as anticancer agents has been explored, there is a limited body of research focusing on the crucial physicochemical conditions influencing bAuNP production. In this study, we aim to identify the optimal growth phase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa cultures that maximizes the redox potential and coordinates the formation of bAuNPs with increased efficiency. The investigation employs 2,6-dichlorophenolindophenol (DCIP) as a redox indicator. Simultaneously, we explore the impact of temperature, pH, and incubation duration on the biosynthesis of bAuNPs, with a specific emphasis on their potential application as antitumor agents. Characterization of the resulting bAuNPs is conducted using ATR-FT-IR, TEM, and UV-Vis spectroscopy. To gain insights into the anticancer potential of bAuNPs, an experimental model is employed, utilizing both non-neoplastic (HPEpiC) and neoplastic (PC3) epithelial cell lines. Notably, P. aeruginosa cultures at 9 h/OD600 = 1, combined with biosynthesis at pH 9.0 for 24 h at 58 °C, produce bAuNPs that exhibit smaller, more spherical, and less aggregated characteristics. Crucially, these nanoparticles demonstrate negligible effects on HPEpiC cells while significantly impacting PC3 cells, resulting in reduced viability, migration, and lower IL-6 levels. This research lays the groundwork for the development of more specialized, economical, and ecologically friendly treatment modalities.

β-Cyclodextrin capped ZnS nanoparticles for CER-assisted colorimetric and spectrophotometric detection of Pb2⁺, Cu2⁺, and Hg2⁺ in an aqueous solution

Herein, simple, low-cost, and room-temperature synthesis of beta-cyclodextrin (β-CD) stabilized zinc sulfide nanoparticle (ZnS NP) through the chemical precipitation method has been reported for cation exchange reaction (CER) based colorimetric sensing of Pb2+, Cu2+, and Hg2+. Formation of β-CD stabilized ZnS NPs (ZnS@β-CD) was verified by physicochemical characterization techniques such as XRD, XPS, FE-SEM, and TEM. ZnS@β-CD NPs showed color change selectively for the metal ions Pb2⁺, Cu2⁺, and Hg2⁺ among the various metal ions including Sn2⁺, Cr³⁺, Mn2⁺, Fe³⁺, Co2⁺, Ni2⁺, and Cd2⁺. The solubility product of reactants and the transformed products are the reason for selective CER of ZnS@β-CD NPs towards Pb2⁺, Cu2⁺, and Hg2⁺ ions. ZnS@β-CD NPs dispersion revealed rapid color change from white to orange, black, and bright yellow on the addition of higher concentrations of Pb2⁺, Cu2⁺, and Hg2⁺ respectively. This color change is due to the formation of complete CER-transformed nanostructures such as PbS, CuS, and HgS in higher concentrations (10⁻1- 10⁻³ M) of corresponding metal ions. The partial CER altered products Zn1-x,PbxS, Zn1-xCuxS and Zn1-xHgxS were detected due to the appearance of pale color in the lower metal ions concentrations of 10⁻⁴ - 10⁻⁶ M. This CER assisted transformation was also monitored through spectrophotometric methods. Moreover, infrared spectroscopic analysis was used to testify the structure of CER transformed product. The synthesized ZnS@β-CD NPs act as an efficient CER-based sensor for distinguishing and determining Pb2⁺, Cu2⁺, and Hg2⁺ at different level concentrations in the aqueous solution.

Plasmonic nanoparticle's anti-aggregation application in sensor development for water and wastewater analysis

Colorimetric sensors have emerged as a powerful tool in the detection of water pollutants. Plasmonic nanoparticles use localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR)-based colorimetric sensing. LSPR-based sensing can be accomplished through different strategies such as etching, growth, aggregation, and anti-aggregation. Based on these strategies, various sensors have been developed. This review focuses on the newly developed anti-aggregation-based strategy of plasmonic nanoparticles. Sensors based on this strategy have attracted increasing interest because of their exciting properties of high sensitivity, selectivity, and applicability. This review highlights LSPR-based anti-aggregation sensors, their classification, and role of plasmonic nanoparticles in these sensors for the detection of water pollutants. The anti-aggregation based sensing of major water pollutants such as heavy metal ions, anions, and small organic molecules has been summarized herein. This review also provides some personal insights into current challenges associated with anti-aggregation strategy of LSPR-based colorimetric sensors and proposes future research directions.

Gold Nanoparticles as Exquisite Colorimetric Transducers for Water Pollutant Detection

Gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) are useful nanomaterials as transducers for colorimetric sensors because of their high extinction coefficient and ability to change color depending on aggregation status. Therefore, over the past few decades, AuNP-based colorimetric sensors have been widely applied in several environmental and biological applications, including the detection of water pollutants. According to various studies, water pollutants are classified into heavy metals or cationic metal ions, toxins, and pesticides. Notably, many researchers have been interested in AuNP that detect water pollutants with high sensitivity and selectivity, while offering no adverse environmental issues in terms of AuNP use. This review provides a representative overview of AuNP-based colorimetric sensors for detecting several water pollutants. In particular, we emphasize the advantages of AuNP as colorimetric transducers for water pollutant detection in terms of their low toxicity, high stability, facile processability, and unique optical properties. Next, we discuss the status quo and future prospects of AuNP-based colorimetric sensors for the detection of water pollutants. We believe that this review will promote research and development of AuNP as next-generation colorimetric transducers for water pollutant detection.

On the Importance of Fresh Stock Solutions for Surfactant-Free Colloidal Syntheses of Gold Nanoparticles in Alkaline Alcohol and Water Mixtures

A room temperature surfactant-free synthesis of gold nanoparticles in the size range 10–20 nm that only requires HAuCl4 as the precursor, NaOH as the base, water as the solvent and a mono-alcohol such as methanol or ethanol as the reducing agent, has recently been detailed. This approach is promisingly simple to obtain colloids stable for months. Here, it is shown that the use of fresh stock solutions of base is one key to ensure the formation of stable surfactant-free small-sized gold nanoparticles. The need for relatively freshly prepared stock solutions of base does not appear to be as crucial for syntheses using stabilizers and/or viscous solvents such as glycerol. The possibly overlooked importance of the age of the stock solution of base might account for the limited interest to date for the simple room temperature synthesis in low viscosity mono-alcohols highlighted.

Surfactant-Free Colloidal Syntheses of Gold-Based Nanomaterials in Alkaline Water and Mono-alcohol Mixtures

Gold nanoparticles (Au NPs) and gold-based nanomaterials combine unique properties relevant for medicine, imaging, optics, sensing, catalysis, and energy conversion. While the Turkevich-Frens and Brust-Schiffrin methods remain the state-of-the-art colloidal syntheses of Au NPs, there is a need for more sustainable and tractable synthetic strategies leading to new model systems. In particular, stabilizers are almost systematically used in colloidal syntheses, but they can be detrimental for fundamental and applied studies. Here, a surfactant-free synthesis of size-controlled colloidal Au NPs stable for months is achieved by the simple reduction of HAuCl₄ at room temperature in alkaline solutions of low-viscosity mono-alcohols such as ethanol or methanol and water, without the need for any other additives. Palladium (Pd) and bimetallic Au _x Pd _y NPs, nanocomposites and multimetallic samples, are also obtained and are readily active (electro)catalysts. The multiple benefits over the state-of-the-art syntheses that this simple synthesis bears for fundamental and applied research are highlighted.

Simultaneous ultra-trace quantitative colorimetric determination of antidiabetic drugs based on gold nanoparticles aggregation using multivariate calibration and neural network methods

In this study, a simple and rapid method was investigated for the simultaneous ultra-trace colorimetric determination of Metformin (MET) and Sitagliptin (STG) based on the aggregation of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs). The Morphology and size distribution of synthesized AuNPs before and after adding drug (Zipmet) were monitored using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS), respectively. By adding a drug, the absorption peak was shifted from 520 to 650 nm. The colorimetric method along with partial least squares (PLS) as a multivariate calibration method, as well as neural network time series were applied to estimate MET and STG simultaneously. The percentage of the mean recovery and root mean square error (RMSE) of the test set of mixtures related to the MET and STG were obtained 99.96, 1.1301 and 99.77, 1.0106, respectively. On the other hand, the regression coefficient (R²) of the training, validation, and test sets corresponding to the artificial neural network (ANN) were close to one for both components. Eventually, the proposed method was compared with a reference technique named high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) by analysis of variance (ANOVA) test and there was no significant difference between them.

Utilizing Ag-Au core-satellite structures for colorimetric and surface-enhanced Raman scattering dual-sensing of Cu (II)

This study develops a dual-channel colorimetric and surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) strategy for detection of Cu²⁺ utilizing Ag-Au core-satellite nanostructures. 4-mercaptobenzoic acid (MBA) modified Ag nanoparticles (AgNPs@MBA) and 4-mercaptopyridine (Mpy) capped AuNPs (GNPs@Mpy) are first designed via metal-sulfur bonds, respectively. Benefiting from the Cu²⁺-triggered NPs self-aggregation, the dispersion of AgNPs-GNPs (AgNPs@MBA + GNPs@Mpy) is turned into AgNPs-Cu²⁺-GNPs core-satellite structures. Because of the presence of pyridyl nitrogen and carboxy group which have specific coordination ability towards Cu²⁺, induces a certain aggregation of NPs. As well it can be obviously discerned by the visual assay and easily captured by SERS analysis. The UV-Vis method exhibits good linearity in the ranging from 0.1 μM-200 μM for Cu²⁺, while SERS method displays good linear response from 1 pM to 100 μM. The detection limit of Cu²⁺ is 0.032 μM by colorimetry and 0.6 pM by SERS method, which is significantly lower than the acceptable limit of Cu²⁺ in drinking water (20 μM) set by the US EPA. Furthermore, colorimetric and SERS assay based on AgNPs-Cu²⁺-GNPs core-satellite structures is used to determine Cu²⁺ in various waters and soils, and the detection results are consistent with the traditional atomic analysis methods. This work offers a new method for detecting Cu²⁺ in environmental samples, and the plasmonic nanostructure provides new entry point for development of multiplexed sensing platform for in-field application.

A water-soluble peptide fluorescent chemosensor for detection of cadmium (II) and copper (II) by two different response modes and its application in living LNcap cells

A novel peptide-based fluorescent chemosensor (DGC) based on dansyl-appended dipeptide (Gly-Cys-NH₂) was synthesized using SPPS technology. DGC exhibited highly sensitive detection of Cadmium (II) ions in 100% aqueous solutions through fluorescent "turn on" response and the detection limits of 14.5 nM. On the other hand, the fluorescence of DGC was almost completely quenched with fast response time when the addition of Cu²⁺ ions to DGC solutions, the detection limits for Cu²⁺ was 26.3 nM. In addition, the 2:1 binding stoichiometry of DGC with Cd²⁺ and Cu²⁺ were confirmed by Job's plot, fluorescent titration and HR-MS data. More importantly, MTT assays and fluorescence imaging experiments suggested that DGC has outstanding membrane permeability and hypotoxicity, and could be an efficient fluorescent chemosensor for Cd²⁺ and Cu²⁺ detection by two different response modes in living LNcap cells.

HSA functionalized Gd2O3:Eu3+ nanoparticles as an MRI contrast agent and a potential luminescent probe for Fe3+, Cr3+, and Cu2+ detection in water

PVP capped Gd₂O₃:Eu³⁺ (PVP@Gd₂O₃:Eu³⁺) and HSA functionalised PVP@Gd₂O₃:Eu³⁺ (HSA@PVP@Gd₂O₃:Eu³⁺) NPs as fluorescent detection probe for metal ion detection and MRI contrast agent.

A novel ratiometric and reversible fluorescence probe with a large Stokes shift for Cu2+ based on a new clamp-on unit

A novel ratiometric and reversible chemosensor 4-((2-(Benzo[d]thiazol-2-yl)phenyl)ethynyl)-N,N-diethylaniline (BT-1) based on ortho-arylethynyl benzothiazole with large Stokes shift (Δλ≈190 nm) was designed and synthesized to recognize Cu²⁺. Copper ion induces a remarkable fluorescence enhancement and causes formation of a BT-1-Cu complex. The clamp-on coordination mode of BT-1 to Cu²⁺ was demonstrated using Job's plot, mass spectrum (MS) and DFT calculations. The calculations also indicate that Cu²⁺ was chelated to BT-1 through N and alkyne instead of S and alkyne. The probe could quantify Cu²⁺ with the detection limit of 3.2 × 10^-9 M. The in vitro imaging results indicated that the probe BT-1 was membrane-permeable and could be applied into the recognition of Cu²⁺ ions in living cells.

Cu2+-catalyzed and H2O2-facilitated oxidation strategy for sensing copper(ii) based on cysteine-mediated aggregation of gold nanoparticles

A novel colorimetric Cu²⁺ sensor using polyethyleneglycol-stabilized gold nanoparticles has been developed based on a cysteine/H₂O₂ system.

A tunable nanopore sensor for the detection of metal ions using translocation velocity and biphasic pulses

A tunable resistive pulse sensor, utilising a polyurethane nanopore, has been used to characterise nanoparticles as they traverse the pore opening. Herein we demonstrate that the translocation speed, conductive and resistive pulse magnitude, can be used to infer the surface charge of a nanoparticle, and act as a specific transduction signal for the binding of metal ions to ligands on the particle surface. Surfaces of silica nanoparticles were modified with a ligand to demonstrate the concept, and used to extract copper(ii) ions (Cu²⁺) from solution. By tuning the pH and ionic strength of the solution, a biphasic pulse, a conductive followed by a resistive pulse is recorded. Biphasic pulses are becoming a powerful means to characterise materials, and provide insight into the translocation mechanism, and herein we present their first use to detect the presence of metal ions in solution. We demonstrate how combinations of translocation speed and/or biphasic pulse behaviour are used to detect Cu²⁺ with quantitative responses across a range of pH and ionic strengths. Using a generic ligand this assay allows a clear signal for Cu²⁺ as low as 1 ppm with a short 5-minute incubation time, and is capable of measuring 10 ppm Cu²⁺ in the presence of 5 other ions. The method has potential for monitoring heavy metals in biological and environmental samples.