Anticancer activity evaluation of green synthesised gold–silver alloy nanoparticles on colourectal HT-29 and prostate DU-145 carcinoma cell lines

Nanotechnology is an interesting way to produce and deal with fascinating features of materials. Metal nanoparticles offer a vast spectrum of potential applications in medicine and pharmaceutical sciences due to advances in nanotechnology research. This study was aimed to evaluate the anticancer properties of gold–silver (Au–Ag) alloy nanoparticles, which were synthesised using a green method by Galega officinalis ethanolic extract. The antitumour activity of biosynthesised nanoparticles has been assessed in vitro using 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay on DU-145 and HT-29, prostate and colon cell lines, respectively. The Au–Ag alloy nanoparticles activity to inhibit the growth of cancer cell lines was recorded in terms of decrease in viable cell count in comparison with the control value. The spherical Au–Ag alloy nanoparticles with average size of 100 nm diameter were synthesised. The growth inhibition of the human prostate (DU-145) and colon carcinoma cell line (HT-29) has been found to be dose dependent. The calculated IC50 for the DU-145 cell line was 95.78 μg/ml after 24 h and for the HT-29 cell line was 70.66 µg/ml after 48 h. The results of this study suggest that Au–Ag alloy nanoparticles could be as an active substance against tumour cell lines and may be a beneficial treatment for cancer.