Reducing the cytotoxicity while improving the anticancer activity of silver nanoparticles through α-tocopherol succinate modification

By releasing Ag+ ions and generating reactive oxygen species (ROS), silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) not only have good anti-tumor activity but also display cytotoxicity towards normal cells which limits their further application in the medical field. Up to now, there was still no appropriate method to reduce the cytotoxicity while improving the anti-cancer activity of Ag NPs. This paper focuses on counteracting the toxic side effect of the ROS from Ag NPs while simultaneously improving their anti-cancer effect. We used alpha-TOS to modify Ag NPs and investigated their bioactivity in vitro for the first time. The modified Ag NPs with a high alpha-TOS concentration not only show much higher anti-tumor activity than Ag NPs alone but also promote the survival of normal cell lines slightly, while the modified Ag NPs with a low alpha-TOS concentration display a lower cytotoxicity against normal cell lines without affecting their anti-cancer activity when compared to Ag NPs alone. Therefore, this work presents a higher potential for cancer treatment than using Ag NPs alone.