Unveiling the Biological Potential of Mycosynthesized Selenium Nanoparticles from Endophytic Fungus Curvularia sp. LCJ413

Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) have recently received interest in several biological applications due to their unique role in preventing cellular damage and other serious human diseases. In this study, SeNPs were synthesized using the cell-free extract of the endophytic fungus Curvularia sp. LCJ413 with sodium selenite as the precursor. The mycosynthesized SeNPs were characterized using UV-visible spectrophotometer, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering, zeta potential, X-ray diffraction, Scanning electron microscopy, and energy dispersive X-ray analysis. The synthesized SeNPs exhibited a crystalline structure with a predominant rod-like shape, alongside some irregular shapes with an average size of 25–100 nm. The synthesized SeNPs were evaluated for biological activities such as antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory. The results showed that SeNPs effectively inhibited Staphylococcus aureus growth (19 ± 0.47 mm zone of inhibition) and dose-dependently reduced 2,2-diphenyl-1-picryl-hydrazine-hydrate and hydrogen peroxide radicals, with the highest inhibition percentages of 90.66 ± 3% and 80.16 ± 2.9% at 50 µg/mL respectively. SeNPs demonstrated potential anti-inflammatory activity at 50 µg/mL, with 80.55 ± 2.7% inhibition for bovine serum albumin denaturation and 76.01 ± 3.1% inhibition for egg albumin denaturation assays. Less toxicity of the SeNPs was demonstrated using brine shrimp lethality assay and zebrafish embryonic development, which makes them an ideal candidate for nanomedicine formulations. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study on the fabrication of SeNPs from the endophytic fungus Curvularia sp. LCJ413 for biological applications.