Synergistic effects of Titanium dioxide nanoparticles and Paclitaxel combination on the DNA structure and their antiproliferative role on MDA-MB-231cells

Objective(s): The objective of this investigation was to evaluate the synergisticeffect of paclitaxel (PTX) combined with titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2NPs)on DNA structure and to examine the proliferation of MDA-MB-231cells.Methods: This investigation performed with Ultraviolet spectroscopy, zetapotential investigation, circular dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, ELISA reader andfluorescence spectroscopy.Results: The Ultraviolet results indicated that the structure of DNA in the presenceof PTX and TiO2NPs (at a lower concentration) changed significantly rather thanTiO2NPs or PTX alone. The fluorescence results exposed that PTX+TiO2NPs couldform a complex via non-intercalative mechanism and the PTX+TiO2NPs affinityto DNA increased considerably. The thermodynamics parameters displayed thatPTX+TiO2NPs interact with DNA strongly and in this interaction, the hydrophobicforce plays an important role. The CD data confirmed that DNA structure wasmodified by PTX+TiO2NPs via a simple and reasonable mechanism: change in DNAconformation from B to C-form. The negative charge of DNA reduced stronglyafter addition of PTX+TiO2NPs. The anticancer property of PTX+TiO2NPs byMTT assay demonstrates that this combination can tremendously diminish theproliferation of MDA-MB-231cells compared to PTX or TiO2NPs alone.Conclusions: Based on this investigation TiO2NPs could enhance the affinityand binding of PTX (at a lower concentration) on DNA structure and PTX+NDscan promote mortality of MDA-MB-231 cells. This study can offer an innovativestrategy for designing the ideal anti-tumor agents.