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Sterigmatocystin Essay

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Sterigmatocystin (ST) is a carcinogenic polyketide [12] produced by species in several fungal genera. Microfungi capable of producing ST are common food, feed and indoor contaminants, and may also be plant and mammalian pathogens, thus having a large economic impact for the biotechnological, agricultural and food industry [12, 13]. Nanotechnology plays an important role in the fabrication of different nanoparticles that can exhibit novel antimicrobial properties [14]. The nano-scale of metals play roles in understanding the ability to manipulate biological processes which will be the central theme for present biomedical and biological issues that need a nanoscience or nanotechnology approach [15]. Shahverdi et al [14] …show more content…

Moreover, selenium has also been found to trigger the generation of ROS, with both elements capable of reacting with intracellular thiols and forming intermediates that cause oxidative stress as a consequence of the formation of superoxide radicals [21, 22]. Nanoparticles can contribute to functional damages of cell membrane or wall by disrupting the integrity of these important envelopes [23]. Selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) have become the focus of intensive research owing to their wide range of applications in areas such as antioxidants [14, 24- 26], antibacterial activity [16] and anticancer [16, 27] applications. However, so far not much has been reported on the evaluation of antifungal activity of SeNPs. Studies of Shahverdi et al [14] have shown that antifungal formulations in the form of nanoparticles could be used as potential fungicidal material. It has been found that SeNPs exhibit low cytotoxicity compared with selenium compounds and possess excellent anticancer and therapeutic activities making them apt for medical applications [28, 29]. SeNPs have anticancer activity against kidney, breast, and lung [30, 31] and hence, can be used as chemopreventive and chemotherapeutic agents. On the other hand, SeNPs synthesized from a biological source possess a significant antimicrobial activity against pathogenic bacteria, microfungi and yeast [32].
The aim of this study was to investigate the complete inhibition of three toxigenic

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