Phyto-drug (Silymarin)-Encapsulated Cerium Oxide Nanoparticles (S-CeONPs) for İn-Vitro Release, Ameliorating Antimicrobial, Anticancer, Anti-inflammatory and Antioxidant Potential

In the current decade, cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeONPs) have emerged as a potentative and widely used therapeutic agents for the prevention and treatment of various diseases due to its unique physio-chemical properties. Herein, we synthesized S-CeONPs by the co-precipitation method with an average size of 85 nm, characterized (FTIR, SEM, EDX, and XRD), and then investigated its anticancer, antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant potential of different concentrations (25, 50, and 100 μg/mL) in comparison with natural drug silymarin. The results of the study show that the biogenic silymarin encapsulated NPs show promising and highly significant (p ≤ 0.05) anticancer potential against Hela cell line, Pc3 and 3T3 cell line, anti-inflammatory activity (68.56 %), and strong antioxidant potential (86.53%) in dose dependant manner. The microbial growth inhibition potential was assessed against E. coli, Salmonella Typhi, and Staphylococcus aureus bacterial strains and Candida glabrata (C. glabrata), Fusarium oxysporum, and Aspergillus fumigatus fungal strains. The highest antibacterial and antifungal activity (19 ± 0.66 mm and 17 ± 0.45 mm) of S-CeONPs was recorded against E. coli and C. glabrata, respectively, by S-CeONPs. In all biological activities, the green fabricated S-CeONPs show superiority in function as compared to silymarin. The superiority of S-CeONPs over commercial silymarin in all activities affirms the beneficial role of CeONPs in the biological system which ameliorate the pharmacological potential of silymarin by improving its solubility, sustained delivery, and bioavailability and defend against physical and chemical degradation. Thus, S-CeONPs could be used in various biological applications including cancer therapy and other oxidative stress mediated disorders.