Abstract
Breast cancer remains one of the most prevalent and life-threatening malignancies among women worldwide, accounting for more than 11% of all cancer diagnoses and a significant proportion of female cancer-related deaths. In South Africa, it constitutes 22.6% of all female cancers and approximately 16% of related mortalities, underscoring an urgent need for effective and accessible treatment alternatives. Conventional treatment modalities for breast cancer such as surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, and hormone therapy, though widely used, often presents serious limitations including poor tumour selectivity, systemic toxicity, multidrug resistance and recurrence. In response to these challenges, natural products and their bioactive phytochemicals are being extensively investigated as safer, sustainable, and cost-effective alternatives or adjuncts to conventional therapies. One such compound, berberine (BBR), a plant-derived isoquinoline alkaloid, possesses potent anticancer, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties but suffers from poor aqueous solubility, low permeability, and rapid metabolic degradation, which hinder its clinical translation.
Recent advances in nanotechnology have introduced nanoparticle (NP)-based drug delivery systems as a transformative solution to such challenges. Among these, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have attracted substantial attention due to their tunable physicochemical characteristics, surface plasmon resonance (SPR)-mediated photoactivity, and intrinsic cytotoxic potential against a wide range of cancer cells. Moreover, their unique optical properties allow for synergistic application in photothermal therapy (PTT) and photodynamic therapy (PDT), which rely on localised heat or reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation upon visible light irradiation. To overcome the biocompatibility concerns associated with chemically synthesised AgNPs, green synthesis using plant extracts has emerged as an eco-friendly, cost-effective, and biologically safe approach, whereby the presence of phytochemicals ...