In our current study, we synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from an aqueous seed extract of Nigella sativa. The seed extract contains phytochemical compounds including phenols, terpenoids, and flavonoids that may act as reducing agents and are able to convert metal ions to metal nanoparticles. The formation of synthesized AgNPs was characterized using UV-visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infra-red spectroscopy (FT-IR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive analysis of X-rays (EDX). The efficacy of N-AgNPs against human breast cancer (MCF-7) cells was tested. The synthesized AgNPs displayed dose-dependent cytotoxicity (1-200 µg/mL) against MCF-7 cells. Morphological alterations of the cells also appeared as bright field images. Treatment of synthesized AgNPs altered the expression of Bax and Bcl-2 (apoptotic proteins) and COX-2 (inflammatory marker) in MCF-7 cells. To our knowledge, this is the first report demonstrating that N-AgNPs from Nigella sativa can induce apoptosis in MCF-7 cells.

中文翻译：

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Nigella sativa控制乳腺癌的AgNPs：一项体外研究。

在我们目前的研究中，我们从黑夜蛾的含水种子提取物中合成了银纳米颗粒（AgNPs）。种子提取物包含植物化学化合物，包括酚类，萜类和类黄酮，它们可以充当还原剂并能够将金属离子转化为金属纳米颗粒。使用紫外可见光谱，傅里叶变换红外光谱（FT-IR），扫描电子显微镜（SEM）和X射线能量色散分析（EDX）对合成的AgNP的形成进行了表征。测试了N-AgNP对人乳腺癌（MCF-7）细胞的功效。合成的AgNP对MCF-7细胞显示出剂量依赖性的细胞毒性（1-200 µg / mL）。细胞的形态变化也表现为明场图像。合成AgNP的处理改变了MCF-7细胞中Bax和Bcl-2（凋亡蛋白）和COX-2（炎症标记）的表达。据我们所知，这是第一个证明来自Nigella sativa的N-AgNPs可以诱导MCF-7细胞凋亡的报告。