A Comparison of Anticancer Activities of Copper Nanoparticles on Two Cancer Lung Cell Lines

Abstract

Due to the need of nano-medicines, the efforts are made to synthesize copper oxide nanoparticles from copper sulphate and copper acetate. These were characterized by the different spectroscopic techniques and showed rough surface with particle sizes 20 to 50 nm (from copper sulphate) and 21 to 51.5 nm (from copper acetate). The anticancer activities were assessed by change in morphology, DAPI staining and MTT assay with A549 and H1299 cell lines. Profound effects of the reported nanoparticles on the morphology were observed. DAPI staining confirmed changes in cells apoptotic morphological structures, chromatin compression, nuclear reduction and apoptotic bodies formation. MTT assay confirmed anticancer activities 59 to 68% for both nanoparticles. It was observed that nanoparticles obtained from copper sulphate showed slightly higher anticancer activities than nanoparticles obtained from copper acetate. Finally, it was concluded that the reported nanoparticles may be used for future anticancer medication as nano anti-cancer drugs.