ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Bioeng. Biotechnol.
Sec. Nanobiotechnology
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fbioe.2025.1668888
Construction of Bioactive Nanocomposites from Beta-Sitosterol, Fucoidan, Chitosan, and Silver Nanoparticles for Anticancer Applications
Provisionally accepted
Ahmed Tayel1*
Fatma K Elagezy1Asmaa Abdella2Hend A Gad1
Mohamed El-Hefnawy3
Sultan Alhayyani3Shaymaa W El-Far4- 1Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr el-Sheikh, Egypt
- 2University of Sadat City, El Sadat City, Egypt
- 3King Abdulaziz University Faculty of Marine Sciences, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia
- 4Taif University, Taif, Saudi Arabia
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Cancers (e.g. colon and skin cancers) are significant causes of mortality. We developed novel anticancer nanocomposites comprising natural bioactive compounds and metal nanoparticles, involving conjugation of beta-sitosterol (BSt) and fucoidan (Fu), for biogenic synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), before conjugation with chitosan (CS), to generate potential innovative anticancerous nanocomposites. The fabricated Fu/BSt/AgNPs/CS nanocomposites were characterized for efficacy against colon cancer (HCT-116) and skin cancer (A375) cells. Electron microscopy (SEM and TEM), FTIR in-frared spectroscopy, DLS analysis and UV-Vis spectroscopy, confirmed the synthesis and interactions within nanocomposites. The MTT assay and dual staining validated the nanocomposites' potentiality as anticancerous materials, compared to “cisplatin”. AgNPs had a mean diameter of 8.83nm, whereas Fu/BSt/AgNPs/CS had 146.6nm size. MTT assay revealed that IC50 of Fu/BSt/AgNPs and Fu/BSt/AgNPs/CS nanocomposites were 16.23, 12.75 mg/L against HCT-116 cells, and 34.81, 22.44 mg/L against A375 cells, respectively, which significantly exceeded the cisplatin IC50 (25.56 and 79.77, respectively). The cancer cells’ treatment with nanocomposites revealed significant apoptosis induction and cell growth inhibition. Ultra-structural imaging confirmed the nanocomposites’ ability to trigger cancer cells to undergo morphological alterations, destructions and collapse. Invented Fu/BSt/AgNPs/CS nanocomposites have great promises as safe and effective treatments for colon and skin cancers, generated from natural compounds.
Keywords: Anticancer activity, Biopolymers nanoparticles, biosynthesis, Natural Products, Bioactivity
Received: 18 Jul 2025; Accepted: 08 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tayel, Elagezy, Abdella, Gad, El-Hefnawy, Alhayyani and El-Far. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ahmed Tayel, ahmed_tayel@fsh.kfs.edu.eg
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