Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles As Guardian against Environmental Carcinogen Benzo[alpha]Pyrene

Authors

Anupam Dhasmana, The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley
Qazi Mohammad Sajid Jamal
Snober Shabnam Mir
Madan Lal Bramha Bhatt
Qamar Rahman
Richa Gupta
Mohd. Haris Siddiqui
Mohtashim Lohani

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-12-2014

Abstract

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH), like Benzo[alpha]Pyrene (BaP) are known to cause a number of toxic manifestations including lung cancer. As Titanium dioxide Nanoparticles (TiO2 NPs) have recently been shown to adsorb a number of PAHs from soil and water, we investigated whether TiO2 NPs could provide protection against the BaP induced toxicity in biological system. A549 cells when co-exposed with BaP (25 mM, 50 mM and 75 mM) along with 0.1 mg/ml,0.5 mg/ml and 1 mg/ml of TiO2 NPs, showed significant reduction in the toxic effects of BaP, as measured by Micronucleus Assay, MTT Assay and ROS Assay. In order to explore the mechanism of protection by TiO2 NP against BaP, we performed in silico studies. BaP and other PAHs are known to enter the cell via aromatic hydrocarbon receptor (AHR). TiO2 NP showed a much higher docking score with AHR (12074) as compared to the docking score of BaP with AHR (4600). This indicates a preferential binding of TiO2 NP with the AHR, in case if both the TiO2 NP and BaP are present. Further, we have done the docking of BaP with the TiO2 NP bound AHR-complex (score 4710), and observed that BaP showed strong adsorption on TiO2 NP itself, and not at its original binding site (at AHR). TiO2 NPs thereby prevent the entry of BaP in to the cell via AHR and hence protect cells against the deleterious effects induced by BaP.

Comments

Copyright 2014 Dhasmana et al.

Recommended Citation

Dhasmana, A., Sajid Jamal, Q. M., Mir, S. S., Bhatt, M. L., Rahman, Q., Gupta, R., Siddiqui, M. H., & Lohani, M. (2014). Titanium dioxide nanoparticles as guardian against environmental carcinogen benzo[alpha]pyrene. PloS one, 9(9), e107068. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0107068

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Title

PLoS ONE

DOI

10.1371/journal.pone.0107068

Academic Level

faculty

Mentor/PI Department

Immunology and Microbiology