Mycosynthesis and Physicochemical Characterization of Vanadium Oxide Nanoparticles Using the Cell-Free Filtrate of Fusarium oxysporum and Evaluation of Their Cytotoxic and Antifungal Activities

Abstract

Green nanotechnology is an expanding branch of knowledge in relation to producing efficient antifungal compounds with potential applications as nanomedicines. The aim of the current investigation was to mycosynthesize functional vanadium oxide nanoparticles (V2O5NPs) by Fusarium oxysporum cell-free filtrate using ammonium metavanadate (NH4VO3) as the substrate. Various spectrometric methods and electron microscopy were used to confirm the production of mycosynthesized V2O5NPs. FESEM and TEM images showed that V2O5NPs were in the size ranging from 10 to 20 nm in a spherical shape. The XRD pattern revealed the presence of crystalline, dominantly spherical V2O5NPs in the sample with a size ranging from 10 to 20 nm. The XRD peaks 15.2, 20.1, 21.6, 26.1, 30.9, 32.2, 33.1, 34.2, 41.0, 41.8, 45.3, 47.2, 48.6, 51.1, 51.9, 55.4, and 58.8 can be assigned to the plane of vanadium crystals and indicate that the V2O5NPs were face-centered, cubic, and crystalline in nature. The FTIR results showed the presence of some biomolecules in fungal cell-free filtrate that act as a bioreducing and capping agent for V2O5NP mycosynthesis. DLS showed that the size of V2O5NPs was 10-20 nm. Zeta potential showed −35.09 mV for V2O5NPs with a single peak. Study of antifungal activity of V2O5NPs against various pathogenic fungi in concentrations of 5, 25, 50, and 100 μg/mL showed that V2O5NPs strongly inhibited both mycelium growth (20.3 to 67.3%) and spore germination (64.8 to 89.9%) dose-dependently. V2O5NPs showed strong cytotoxicity against breast cancer cell-line MCF-7 with an $\text{I}{\text{C}}_{50}$ value of 55.89 μg/mL. Microscopy images showed morphological changes and reduction of cancer cell populations in V2O5NP-treated MCF-7 cell-line. Taken together, our results demonstrated that bioactive V2O5NPs successfully synthesized by F. oxysporum could be considered a potential candidate in drug development against life-threatening fungal pathogens and as a feasible anticancer agent.