Abstract Description

Cancer remains a major global health burden, with current treatments limited by several drawbacks like drug resistance and ineffectiveness in advanced stages. The use of nanotechnology led to the development of novel nanotherapeutic strategies, particularly silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have demonstrated impressive anticancer activity due to their unique physicochemical properties. The physical and chemical synthesis methods of AgNPs are costly and rely on harmful chemicals. Green synthesis methods using agricultural waste like cowpea pods (CP) provides sustainable, affordable, and environmentally friendly alternatives. The CP-AgNPs were synthesized and characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), and High Resolution-Transmission Electron Microscopy (HR-TEM). The CP-AgNPs had λmax at 420nm. DLS revealed a hydrodynamic diameter of 64.94 ± 4.293 nm with polydisperse index of 0.2596 ± 0.0152, while HR-TEM displayed an average core size of 10.99 ± 2.6 nm. The CP-AgNPs selectively reduced the cell viability of pancreatic cancer (Panc-1) cells, while demonstrating minimal toxicity against normal skin fibroblast (KMST-6) and prostate cancer (PC-3) cell lines. The co-treatments with CP-AgNPs and Doxorubicin at non-lethal concentrations caused reduction in cell viability of Panc-1 cells, suggesting that CP-AgNPs might have drug sensitizing effects. Further investigations are underway to understand the anti-cancer mechanism that resulted in the selectivity and drug sensitizing effects of the CP-AgNPs.