A potential antibiofilm, antimicrobial and anticancer activities of chitosan capped gold nanoparticles prepared by γ–irradiation

Recently, nanotherapy has been considered a promising and rapidly evolving field to combat cancer. Both gold nanoparticles and chitosan are interesting materials with biological and antitumor properties. The present study aimed to synthesise chitosan/gold nanocomposites (Cs/Au) using gamma irradiation technique and to study their anticancer, antibiofilm and antimicrobial activities. The synthesized Cs/Au nanocomposites were characterized using various analytical tools such as UV-vis, XRD, and TEM. UV-vis absorption spectra exhibited a surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak at 525 nm that confirming the successful synthesis of colloidal AuNPs. The TEM image demonstrates well-dispersed spherical shaped Au nanoparticles. The cytotoxic activity of Cs/Au nanocomposites was examined against HepG-2 and CACO-2 cell lines in comparison to free chitosan using neutral red assay test. The Cs/Au nanocomposites inhibited the proliferation of cancer cells more than chitosan. Moreover, the prepared Cs/Au nanocomposites showed antibacterial and antibiofilm activities encouraging its potential candidature for biomedical and pharmaceutical purposes.