Table 1.

CuO NPs and CuO/CNPs antimicrobial and anticancer activities.

CuO NPs or modified CuO NPs	Size	Concentrations	Methods	Purpose	Conclusions	References
CuO NPs	577 nm	50-500 μg/ml	Green synthesis from F. religiosa leaves	Anticancer activity of human lungs cancer	Cytotoxicity of CuO nanoparticles against human lung cancer (A59) cells augmented with increased dose concentration, whereby it showed 6% viability at higher concentration (500 μg/ml) rather than the 70% viability at the lower concentration of 50 μg/ml.	[52]
CuO NPs	5-15 nm	—	Picosecond laser ablation in air and argon gas	Antimicrobial activity against S. aureus	Copper nanoparticles prepared 1064 nm—picosecond laser in argon showed strong antibacterial activity against gram-positive bacteria, S. aureus.	[30]
CuO NPs	30 and 60 nm	0.1 mg/ml	Chemical reduction method to prepare aqueous Cu colloid	Antibacterial and antitumor effects	CuO NPs of both 30 nm and 60 nm sizes demonstrated increased NP concentration causing decreased survival and expression of MMP-2 and VEGF genes and increased apoptosis in 4T1 cancer cells. Furthermore, at all concentrations, CuO NPs of 30 nm equated to 60 nm NPs demonstrated dual impact on anti-cancer and antibacterial activities.	[53]
CuO NPs	20 nm	250, 500, and 1000 μg/ml	Biosynthesized CuO nanoparticles from Nilgirianthus ciliatus plant extract	Antibacterial and anticancer activity	CuO NPs exhibited noticeable activity on both the MCF-7 and A549 cancer cell lines and showed minimum cytotoxicity on normal cells, fibroblast (L929).	[54]
CuO NPs/carbon nanocomposites	11-22 nm	0.250 mg/ml, 0.5 mg/ml, and 1.0 mg/ml	Green synthesis method using leaf extracts of Adhatoda vasica	Antimicrobial activity (antifungal activity and antibacterial)	CuO/C nanocomposites exhibited remarkable antimicrobial activities against gram-negative bacteria, P. aeruginosa, E. coli, and K. pneumoniae, and the gram-positive bacteria, S. aureus, as well as against the fungi, A. niger and C. albicans.	[55]
CuO NPs decorated CNPs	5-40 nm diameter range	50 μg/ml	Pulsed laser ablation in liquid	Antimicrobial activity against S. aureus and E. coli and anticancer potential on MCF-7	CNP-CuO NPs showed inhibitory activity against both pathogenic bacterial strains and high potential as an anticancer agent, with higher cytotoxicity against breast cancer cells than the CNPs alone. The highest anticancer activity impact for CNP-CuO NPs reached ~85%. In addition, CNPs and CNP-CuO NPs did not display any significant in vivo side effects as indicated by kidneys and liver functions tests.	Current study

CuO: copper oxide; NPs: nanoparticles; CNPs: carbon NPs.