Ricerc@Sapienza

Recently, it has been highlighted an overlooked connection between the biting activity of Anopheles mosquitoes and the spread of cancer. The excellent physico-chemical properties of graphene quantum dots (GQDs) make them a suitable candidate for biomedical applications. We focused on the toxicity of GQDs against Plasmodium falciparum and its vector Anopheles stephensi, and their impact on predation of non-target mosquito predators. Biophysical methods, including UV–vis, photoluminescence, FTIR and Raman spectroscopy, XRD analysis and TEM, confirmed the effective GQD nanosynthesis.

The development of pathogens and parasites resistant to synthetic drugs has created the need for developing alternative approaches to fight vector-borne diseases. In this research, we fabricated green-synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNP) using Musa paradisiaca stem extract as a reducing and stabilizing agent. AgNP showed plasmon resonance reduction under UV–Vis spectrophotometry, SEM and XRD highlighted that they were crystalline in nature with face centered cubic geometry.