Phytomediated Chitosan-Modified TiO2 NPs for Enhanced Photocatalytic and Potential Application for Breast Cancer Therapy

Abstract

This work investigates the structural, photocatalytic, and biological properties of Juglans regia leaves extract mediated chitosan-modified TiO₂ nanoparticles (NPs) and Juglans regia mediated TiO₂ NPs. The structural and morphological analysis conducted using X-ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, transmission electron microscopy, and FTIR revealed that synthesizing the TiO₂ NPs using both chitosan and Juglans regia leaves extract results in lower particle size and less agglomeration in comparison to TiO₂ NPs synthesized using only Juglans regia leaves extract. The photocatalytic activity for the degradation of Rhodamine B using phytomediated chitosan-modified TiO₂ NPs has a remarkable degradation efficacy of 95.07% when subjected to UV-visible light. Further, phytomediated chitosan-modified TiO₂ NPs have ability to reduce the E2 estrogen levels and which inhibits the growth of breast cancer cells (MCF-7) which was confirmed by yeast based XenoScreen XL YES assay, [³H] thymidine incorporation, and apoptosis gene expression (Casp 3 and Casp 9) analysis.

Keywords: Juglans regia; anticancer; photocatalytic activity; rhodamine B; titanium oxide nanoparticles.