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Abstract
Cosmetics and other daily care products contain titanium(IV) oxide (titania). Since multiple risk factors can increase the chance of developing cancer, an evaluation of titania safety has become a matter of concern in recent times. However, it should be pointed out that titania as an efficient photocatalyst has been also applied for inactivation of various pathogens, environmental purification and energy conversion, which might result in significant improvement of human life. Therefore, it is worth considering titania not only as a possible cancer initiator, but also as an efficient solution against cancer cells. Accordingly, in this study, the effect of commercial titania photocatalyst P25 (Degussa/Evonik) on breast adenocarcinoma MCF7 cells (ATCC® HTB-22™, breast adenocarcinoma cell line from human) has been investigated. The cells were treated with titania at doses of 10, 30, and 50 µg/mL under UVA/vis irradiation and in the dark. The significant morphological alterations in living cells were observed for larger doses of titania, such as changes in the shape and the size of cells, the deviation from the normal structure, and an increase in cells’ mortality. Moreover, the effect was significantly higher under irradiation than in the dark confirming strong photocatalytic activity of titania P25. In contrast, the lowest dose of titania (10 µg/mL) did not exhibit a significant impact on MCF7 cells, similarly to the nontreated cells. Accordingly, it has been proposed that locally applied titania might be considered for a cancer therapy after necessary in vivo tests to estimate any possibilities of side effects.
Highlights
The concerns on biosafety of nanomaterials, in particular metal-based nanostructures, such as nanogold, nanosilver, and metal oxides (e.g., cerium (IV) oxide, zinc (II) oxide, titanium (IV) oxide), have been raised in the last few years, as evident in the ever-growing number of studies and scientific papers [1,2,3]
The most adequate titania photocatalyst has been selected for this study
Degussa/Evonik P25 is probably the most “famous” titania photocatalyst, because of extremely high photocatalytic activity for various reactions, and commonly used, and available in almost every laboratory focusing on heterogeneous photocatalysis in the world
Summary
The concerns on biosafety of nanomaterials, in particular metal-based nanostructures, such as nanogold, nanosilver, and metal oxides (e.g., cerium (IV) oxide, zinc (II) oxide, titanium (IV) oxide), have been raised in the last few years, as evident in the ever-growing number of studies and scientific papers [1,2,3]. Some studies have already suggested the toxicity of titania, resulting from nanostructural morphology (nanomaterial toxicity) and photo-reactivity (generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), including singlet oxygen even in sunscreen creams) [4,5,6], the common and commercial applications of titania for daily products have not been limited. In April 2019, France banned using E171 as a food additive from 2020 [7]. According to the Committee for Catalysts 2020, 10, 238; doi:10.3390/catal10020238 www.mdpi.com/journal/catalysts
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