Chrysin-Anchored Silver and Gold Nanoparticle-Reduced Graphene Oxide Composites for Breast Cancer Therapy

Natural polyphenol assisted fabrication of nanohybrids with improved stability and bioactivity have gained considerable interest in material science. In this study, the anticancer flavone chrysin (5,7-dihydroxyflavone ChR) was employed to fabricate silver (AgNPs) and gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) hybridized reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanocomposites (ChR@Ag-rGONCs and ChR@Au-rGONCs) with long-term stabilities. Prepared nanocomposites (NCs) were characterized using high-throughput analyses. The hydroxyl (O–H) and carbonyl (C═O) functional groups of ChR actively contribute to the reduction of GO/metal ions (Ag+ and Au3+) and uniform decoration of Ag and AuNPs on the rGO active sites. The presence of noble metal NPs on the rGO surface improved its thermal stability and performances in diverse physiological conditions. Moreover, the surface passivation of the fabricated NCs with natural anticancer flavone ChR improved its biocompatibility. Due to the synergistic impact of the plasmonic metal–rGO hybrids, the fabricated NCs exhibited an increased cytotoxic effect over that of free-ChR against two different breast carcinoma (MDA-MD-468 and MDA-MD-231) cell lines. The prepared NCs showed comparatively less toxicity against the normal mouse fibroblast (L929) cells, demonstrating the high safety of biofunctionalized NCs in anticancer therapy. We demonstrated that the generation of reactive oxygen species released by the metal ions coexisting on the rGO induce apoptosis. Hence, this work offers a natural and viable scaling-up procedure to synthesize noble metal NPs decorated hybrid rGO composites for useful antibreast cancer applications.