Artemesia Annua L. Nanoparticles Destabilize Membrane Integrity and Induce Apoptosis in a Caspase Mediated Pathway in MDA-MB-231 Cells

Breast cancer exhibits diagnostic and therapeutic challenges due to tumour heterogenicity and poor efficacy of anti cancer drugs at the metastatic sites. Recently, nanomedicines provide a potential benefit to breast cancer treatment by their increased bioavailability, selective targeting, increased efficacy and lower toxicity. This work aimed to evaluate the cytotoxic potential of A. annua silver nanoparticles (AGNPs) on human triple-negative breast cancer cell lines. The mechanism by which A.annua AGNPs exhibit growth inhibition was analysed by using the status of LDH, Mitochondria Membrane potential [MMP], and ATP levels. Finally, the ability of A. annua AGNPs to mediate cell death was studied by protein expressions of Bax, BCL-2, Caspase 3and Caspase 9. We observed that A. annua AGNPs show a remarkable cytotoxic effect by increasing levels of LDH with loss of MMP and reduced ATP levels. Here in this study, protein expression of Bax, BCL-2 ratio, Cyt C and Caspase 9 protein expression level favors apoptotic induction during AGNPs treatment. Henceforth we prove that A.annua AGNPs can be useful as alleviative regiment against breast cancer and can be explored for other cancers and its related pathologies.