Targeting and Photodynamic Killing of Cancer Cell by Nitrogen-Doped Titanium Dioxide Coupled with Folic Acid.
Titanium dioxide (TiO₂) has attracted wide attention as a potential photosensitizer (PS) in photodynamic therapy (PDT). However, bare TiO₂ can only be excited by ultraviolet illumination, and it lacks specific targeting ligands, which largely impede its application. In our study, we produced nitrogen-doped TiO₂ and linked it with an effective cancer cell targeting agent, folic acid (FA), to obtain N-TiO₂-FA nanoconjugates. Characterization of N-TiO₂-FA included Zeta potential, absorption spectra and thermogravimetric analysis. The results showed that N-TiO₂-FA was successfully produced and it possessed better dispersibility in aqueous solution than unmodified TiO₂. The N-TiO₂-FA was incubated with human nasopharyngeal carcinoma (KB) and human pulmonary adenocarcinoma (A549) cells. The KB cells that overexpress folate receptors (FR) on cell membranes were used as FR-positive cancer cells, while A549 cells were used as FR-negative cells. Laser scanning confocal microscopy results showed that KB cells had a higher uptake efficiency of N-TiO₂-FA, which was about twice that of A549 cells. Finally, N-TiO₂-FA is of no cytotoxicity, and has a better photokilling effect on KB cells under visible light irradiation. In conclusion, N-TiO₂-FA can be as high-value as a PS in cancer targeting PDT.
Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Ultra-Precision Optical Manufacturing, Green Photoelectron Platform, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China. jinxie13@fudan.edu.cn.
Jin
J
Xie
Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Ultra-Precision Optical Manufacturing, Green Photoelectron Platform, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China. xiaobopan11@fudan.edu.cn.
Xiaobo
X
Pan
Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Ultra-Precision Optical Manufacturing, Green Photoelectron Platform, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China. mengyanwang14@fudan.edu.cn.
Mengyan
M
Wang
Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Ultra-Precision Optical Manufacturing, Green Photoelectron Platform, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China. yaolongfang@126.com.
Longfang
L
Yao
Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Ultra-Precision Optical Manufacturing, Green Photoelectron Platform, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China. liangxy14@fudan.edu.cn.
Xinyue
X
Liang
Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Ultra-Precision Optical Manufacturing, Green Photoelectron Platform, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China. jiongma@fudan.edu.cn.
Jiong
J
Ma
Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Ultra-Precision Optical Manufacturing, Green Photoelectron Platform, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China. fyy@fudan.edu.cn.
Yiyan
Y
Fei
Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Ultra-Precision Optical Manufacturing, Green Photoelectron Platform, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China. pnwang@fudan.edu.cn.
Pei-Nan
PN
Wang
Department of Optical Science and Engineering, Shanghai Engineering Research Center of Ultra-Precision Optical Manufacturing, Green Photoelectron Platform, Fudan University, 220 Handan Road, Shanghai 200433, China. lanmi@fudan.edu.cn.
Lan
L
Mi
cancer cell targeting; folic acid; photodynamic therapy; titanium dioxide nanoparticle