The syntesis of bimetallic nanoparticles using human cancer cells

Identifier:  TFM:408

Handle: https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11797/TFM408

Authors:  Alvarez Sanchez, Miguel Angel

Abstract:
Cancer has always been one of the most harmful diseases and it is becoming a real concern with 2 millions of new diagnoses and 0.5 millions of patients that do not overcome the disease per year. The actual treatments lead to a wide list of side effects and a lack of specificity in the target, so that the need of new drugs and therapies becomes relevant to decrease the number of deaths per year. Nanoparticles have been prepared using synthetic physicochemical methods for a long time, due to quick and easy protocols. Nevertheless, these methodologies are not free of drawbacks, such as the production of toxic by-products and aggregation problems that only can be avoided using functionalization post-synthesis. Green synthesis may be the answer to avoid all of these limitations, using living organisms, such as bacteria or fungi, or dietary compounds, such as honey, milk or tea. In this research, we develop environmentally-friendly and quick methods for the synthesis of metallic nanoparticles made of platinum, palladium, gold, and alloys of these elements, using human cells, both healthy and cancerous. Inoculation of neutral media containing cells with metallic salts leads to the generation of metal nanoparticles within the media that did not kill of the cells, which would naturally occur if the cells were presented in the neutral media. Besides, nanoparticles were then isolated and purified. These human cell-mediated syntheses of nanoparticles allowed for the generation of nanoparticles that can be used as both antibacterial agents and anticancer components.