Cytotoxicity Evaluation of pH-Controlled Antitumor Drug Release System of Titanium Dioxide Nanotubes

Application of nanotechnology and nanomaterials in cancer therapeutics has attracted much attention in recent years. Nano titanium dioxide is one of the most important inorganic functional materials. Cellular toxicity of pH-controlled antitumor drug release system of titanium dioxide nanotubes (TiO2-NTs) in pancreatic cancer cells (SW1990) was evaluated in this paper. The anticancer drug, doxorubicin (DOX) was easily loaded on TiO2-NTs through adsorption forces because of its high specific surface area and perfect surface activity. The drug release from the nanotubes was pH dependent. The toxicological effects were studied after co-incubation of SW1990 with TiO2-NTs-DOX, TiO2-NTs and DOX, respectively. The cellular effect of DOX released from the TiO2-NTs-DOX was same as when DOX was used alone, indicating that the synthesized TiO2-NTs are well qualified as drug carriers in antitumor drug controlled-release system.