Photocatalytic Killing Effect Of Fe3o4-Tio2 Nanoparticles On Hepatoma Carcinoma Cells For Targeting Photodynamic Therapy

Photodynamic therapy (PDT), as a fast developing alternative of traditional therapeutics, is showing great promise in antitumor treatment. Herein, novel photosensitizer (PS) Fe3O4-TiO2 magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) were strategically designed as targeting drug with higher photocatalytic killing efficiency. The photokilling effect of Fe3O4-TiO2 NPs on hepatoma carcinoma cells (HepG2) in different external magnetic fields was investigated under ultraviolet light and visible light irradiation. Meanwhile, changes of cell cycle, apoptosis rate and mitochondrial membrane potential (MMP) of HepG2 cells were detected by flow cytometry (FCM). The results indicated that Fe3O4-TiO2 NPs have comparable photokilling efficiency to HepG2 cells under both visible and ultraviolet light. Moreover, Fe3O4-TiO2 NPs have higher cell uptake efficiency than pure TiO2, which made it possible to have higher selectivity and photocatalytic killing efficiency. The mechanism was that photocatalytic Fe3O4-TiO2 NPs inhibit cancer cells by yielding reactive oxygen species (ROS). Then, Fe3O4-TiO2 induced apoptosis, mediated by arresting cell cycle in G(0)/G(1) phase, reducing mitochondrial membrane potential, and mitochondrial depolarization.