Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Cluster Science https://doi.org/10.1007/s10876-022-02395-3 ORIGINAL PAPER Low Dose of Green Synthesized Silver Nanoparticles is Suﬃcient to Cause Strong Cytotoxicity via its Cytotoxic Eﬃciency and Modulatory Eﬀects on the Expression of PIK3CA and KRAS Oncogenes, in Lung and Cervical Cancer Cells Hanan A. Bin Saeed 1 · Maha H. Daghestani 1 · Khushboo Ambreen 2 · Mazin H. Daghestani 3 · Sabah A. Al‑Zahrani 4 · Hussah Alobaid 1 · Nawal M. AL‑Malahi 1 Received: 26 June 2022 / Accepted: 15 November 2022 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2022 Abstract The impressive role of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) is well identiﬁed for cancer therapy. However, safety concerns have been raised about the adverse eﬀects of high-doses of chemically-synthesized-AgNPs that release many hazardous residues and in turn diminish the anticancer property of AgNPs. Hence, to overcome these side eﬀects and to maintain the anticancer eﬀectiveness of AgNPs at relatively low-doses, the present study utilizes a natural antitumor product Ferula asafoetida (FA) in the preparation of green synthesis of AgNPs and further focuses on its cytotoxic eﬀects, against Lung and Cervical cancer cells. The successful green-synthesis of FA-AgNPs was conﬁrmed via UV–Vis-spectroscopy, TEM, DLS, FTIR and IR. Based on cytotoxicity assay, the average low (6.25 µl) and high (25 µl) doses of FA-AgNPs were observed to cause severe cytotoxic eﬀects on studied cancer cells. Furthermore, our study was also directed to check any possible antitumorigenic- modulatory-eﬀects of low and high doses of FA-AgNPs on the expression of four oncogenes (PIK3CA, KRAS, EGFR and ERBB3). In RT-qPCR analysis, the low and high doses of FA-AgNPs caused signiﬁcant(p < 0.01) downregulation eﬀects on the expression of PIK3CA and KRAS oncogenes, in treated-cancer cells. This is the ﬁrst-report on the role of FA-AgNPs that induce strong cytotoxicity with its low-doses. Keywords Silver nanoparticles · Ferula asafoetida · Green synthesis · Low dose · Cytotoxicity · Oncogenes · Lung and cervical cancer Introduction Cancer is a serious life-threatening disease causing a huge burden of death worldwide, accounting for approximately 10 million deaths in 2020 [1]. Over the past two decades, lung and cervical cancers are the two most common cancers that have been known to cause continuous escalating load of morbidity and mortality [2, 3]. Despite the advances in various eﬀective drugs and thera- pies, majority of the cancer patients suﬀer unsatisfactory and depressive results in terms of short survival rate [4]. Hence, cancer treatment still demands newer approach in the form of more eﬀective therapeutic beneﬁts. In recent growing and demanding ﬁeld of nanotechnol- ogy, the extensive use of many popular nanoparticles is gaining primary attention towards the development of more eﬀective and less costly anticancer drugs [5]. Among these prevalent nanoparticles, the anticarcinogenic potential of sil- ver nanoparticles (AgNPs) is well established in numerous in vivo and in vitro studies in favor of lung, cervical, breast and colon cancer cells etc. [6–8]. In addition, a great number of scientists have highlighted the biological role of AgNPs * Khushboo Ambreen khushboo4march@gmail.com 1 Department of Zoology, College of Science, Centre for Scientiﬁc and Medical Female Colleges, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia 2 Department of Biotechnology, Integral University, Lucknow 226026, India 3 College of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Mecca, Saudi Arabia 4 Department of Biochemistry, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia