MicroRNA Response and Toxicity of Potential Pathways in Human Colon Cancer Cells Exposed to Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles

Wen Li; Ming Xi Jia; Jing Deng; Jian Hui Wang; Zavuga Zuberi; Sheng Yang; Jie Ba; Zhu Chen

doi:10.3390/cancers12051236

MicroRNA Response and Toxicity of Potential Pathways in Human Colon Cancer Cells Exposed to Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles

Cancers (Basel). 2020 May 14;12(5):1236. doi: 10.3390/cancers12051236.

Authors

Wen Li^{1

2}, Ming Xi Jia¹, Jing Deng^{1

2}, Jian Hui Wang³, Zavuga Zuberi^{2

4}, Sheng Yang⁵, Jie Ba¹, Zhu Chen²

Affiliations

¹ National Engineering Laboratory for Deep Process of Rice and Byproducts, College of Food Science and Engineering, Hunan Province Key Laboratory of Edible forestry Resources Safety and Processing Utilization, Central South University of Forestry and Technology, Changsha 410004, Hunan, China.
² Key Laboratory of Biological Nanomaterials and Devices, College of Packaging and Material Engineering, College of Life Sciences and Chemistry, Hunan University of Technology, Zhuzhou 412007, Hunan, China.
³ School of Chemistry and Food Engineering, Changsha University of Science and Technology, Changsha 410114, Hunan, China.
⁴ Department of Science and Laboratory Technology, Dares Salaam Institute of Technology, Dares Salaam P.O. Box 2958, Tanzania.
⁵ School of Energy Science and Engineering, Central South University, Changsha 410083, Hunan, China.

Abstract

Titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO₂-NPs) are widely used for biomedical and food applications, the toxicity of TiO₂-NPs in vivo and in vitro has been elucidated, but the underlying cytotoxicity of TiO₂-NPs against microRNA remains largely unknown. The purpose of this study was to analyze microRNA proﬁling induced by TiO₂-NPs against NCM460 and HCT116 cell lines. Comparative analysis identiﬁed 34 and 24 microRNAs were significantly altered in the TiO₂-NPs treated cells at concentrations of 3 and 30 μg/mL, respectively. Functional classiﬁcation demonstrated that a large proportion of genes involved in metabolism, human disease, and environmental information process were signiﬁcantly upregulated by TiO₂-NPs. Bioinformatics analysis suggested that microRNA 378 might be an early indicator of cellular response to exogenous stimuli with apoptotic signals. Furthermore, TiO₂-NPs significantly altered the expression of microRNA 378b and 378g in HCT116 and NCM460 cell lines at different concentrations from 3 to 6 μg/mL. These concentrations elicit high-sensitivity of stimuli response in colon cancer cells when exposed to the slight doses of TiO₂-NPs. Our study indicated that microRNAs 378b and 378g may play an important role in TiO₂-NPs-mediated colonic cytotoxicity, which may provide a valuable insight into the molecular mechanisms of potential risks in colitis and colon cancer.

Keywords: TiO2-NPs; bioinformatics analysis; cytotoxicity; human colon cancer cell.

Abstract

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