Biogenic silver, gold and copper nanoparticles - A sustainable green chemistry approach for cancer therapy

Abstract The advent of nanotechnology has revolutionized the way clinicians are treating cancers. Treatment for cancer includes surgery, radiotherapy, hormonal therapy, chemotherapy, and now nano therapy, which could be a possible alternative. This new treatment regime can be beneficial since it shows minimum side effects as compared to other treatment methods. Metallic nanoparticles synthesized through green chemistry by using biological entities minimizes the side effects and enhances the properties of the metal against cancer cells. These green nanoparticles are widely used in research and have shown promising cytotoxic activity against various cancer cell lines. Mechanistically, these nanoparticles can enter the cancer cell and cause cell death by the activation of various molecular pathways such as apoptosis, necrosis and autophagy. This review focuses on the metal nanoparticles (silver, gold and copper) synthesized by the green chemistry approach that have been utilized to study the cancer cell death and we are also discussing the underlying molecular pathways.