Development of drug delivery system conjugated with doxorubicin (dox) on the surface of AuNPs with polyvinylpyrrolidone (Dox@PVP-AuNPs), we have demonstrated that human lung cancer cells can significantly overcome by the combination of highly effective cellular entry and responsive intracellular release of doxorubicin from Dox@PVP-AuNPs complex. Previously drug release from doxorubicin-conjugated AuNPs was confirmed by the recovered fluorescence of doxorubicin from quenching due to the nanosurface energy transfer between doxorubicinyl groups and AuNPs. Dox@PVP-AuNPs achieved enhanced inhibition of lung cancer cells growth than free Doxorubicin and PVP-AuNPs. The in vitro cytotoxic effect of PVP-AuNPs, free Dox and Dox@PVP-AuNPs inhibited the proliferation of human lung cancer cells with IC₅₀ concentration. Compared with control cells, PVP-AuNPs and free Dox, Dox@PVP-AuNPs can increases ROS generation, sensitize mitochondrial membrane potential and induces both early and late apoptosis in lung cancer cells. Moreover, Dox@PVP-AuNPs highly upregulates the expression of tumor suppressor genes than free Dox and PVP-AuNPs and induces intrinsic apoptosis in lung cancer cells. From the results, Dox@PVP-AuNPs can be considered as an potential drug delivery system for effective treatment of human lung cancer.

The present study aims to find a facile, green and more yielding approach for the synthesis of high stability gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) with a monodispersed nature using an aqueous extract of Sesuvium portulacastrum L. The synthesis and yield of AuNPs under different pH values, temperatures and times were determined using a UV-spectrophotometer. A morphological study shows that the synthesized AuNPs are mostly spherical in shape with an average particle size of ∼37 nm and these results were compared with the particle size acquired using DLS and XRD data by the Scherrer formula. The selected area electron diffraction pattern indicated a crystalline nature of the AuNPs that was further confirmed using XRD analysis. In the present study, we carried out in vitro analysis to demonstrate the anticancer efficiency of AuNPs against an A549 lung cancer cell line and the results showed that an IC₅₀ dose effectively induces apoptosis and necrosis of A549 cells. Generation of oxidative stress and reactive oxygen species by AuNPs might induce the sensitization of the mitochondrial membrane that leads to triggering the apoptosis pathway. Furthermore, cell cycle analysis showed that AuNPs arrest the cell cycle at the G0/G2 phase in A549 cells. Together, these results clearly show that biogenic synthesized AuNPs have been proven to have excellent anticancer activity against A549 cells and a lower toxicity against HBL100 cells.