Design of Lysozyme-Templated Biocompatible Fluorescent Nanocomposites and Their Potential Applications for Cell Imaging, Hydrogen Peroxide Sensing, and Cancer Therapy

Recently, multifunctional metal-based nanocomposites gained immense importance in various biomedical applications. Here, a simple approach is reported to synthesize fluorescent bimetallic nanocomposites (NCs) of silver-gold (Ag@Au NC) and silver-platinum (Ag@Pt NC) by reducing silver nitrate (AgNO3) on gold nanoparticles and platinum nanoparticles (AuNPs, PtNPs), respectively, in the presence of lysozyme that acts as capping agent. Various in vitro (in normal cells including Chinese hamster ovarian and human umbilical vein endothelial cells) and in vivo (in mouse and chicken egg chorioallantoic membrane model) studies reveal the biocompatibility of these nanocomposites. However, these NCs show inhibition of cancer cell proliferation when treated to various cancer cells (MCF-7, MDA-MB-231, and B16F10), indicating their anticancer property. Intraperitoneal administration of these NCs resulted in the regression of melanoma tumor in C57BL/6J mouse model. Further, these NCs displayed green fluorescence inside MCF-7 cells facilitating in vitro live-cell imaging and sense hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) in cellular level (B16F10 and MCF-7) using their fluorescence enhancement property in presence of H2O2.The results (in vitro and in vivo) altogether demonstrate the promising multifunctional applications of bimetallic nanocomposites (NCs) that can be utilized as promising transformative drugs in cancer theranostics applications.