Watermelon Rind Mediated Biosynthesis of Bimetallic Selenium-Silver Nanoparticles: Characterization, Antimicrobial and Anticancer Activities

Abstract

One of the most hazardous diseases that influences human health globally is microbial infection. Therefore, bimetallic nanoparticles have received much attention for controlling microbial infections in the current decade. In the present study, bimetallic selenium–silver nanoparticles (Se-Ag NPs) were effectively biosynthesized using watermelon rind WR extract through the green technique for the first time. UV-visible spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) methods were used to characterize the produced NPs. The results indicated that the bimetallic Se-Ag NPs had synergistic antimicrobial activity at low concentrations, which helped to reduce the toxicity of Ag NPs after the bimetallic Se-Ag NPs preparation and increase their great potential. Se-Ag NPs with sizes ranging from 18.3 nm to 49.6 nm were detected by TEM. Se-Ag NP surfaces were uniformly visible in the SEM picture. The cytotoxicity of bimetallic Se-Ag NPs was assessed against the Wi38 normal cell line to check their safety, where the IC50 was 168.42 µg/mL. The results showed that bimetallic Se-Ag NPs had antibacterial action against Candida albicans, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella oxytoca, Bacillus subtilis, and Staphylococcus aureus with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 12.5 to 50 µg/mL. Additionally, bimetallic Se-Ag NPs had promising anticancer activity toward the MCF7 cancerous cell line, where the IC50 was 21.6 µg/mL. In conclusion, bimetallic Se-Ag NPs were biosynthesized for the first time using WR extract, which had strong antibacterial, antifungal and anticancer properties.