Effects of Toll-like Receptors 3 and 4 Induced by Titanium Dioxide Nanoparticles in DNA Damage-Detecting Sensor Cells

摘要

Live cell-based sensor reporter systems (so-called sensor cells) were employed to detect host defense systems, including DNA damage response, stimulated by nanoparticles (NPs). Our previous work established the use of DNA damage-detecting sensor cells containing the B-cell translocation gene 2(BTG2) promoter-reporter plasmid and showed that Toll-like receptors (TLRs) are involved in the cellular response and uptake of TiO2 NPs. These results suggested that TLRs could be involved in many cellular responses. However, the effect of TLRs on DNA damage induced by TiO2 NPs is unknown. Here we investigated the role of TLR 3 and 4 in DNA damage induced by PEG- 2 NPs reduces DNA damage response compared to unmodified TiO2 NPs. The overexpression of TLR3 reduces DNA damage mediated by both TiO2 and PEG-TiO2 NPs. In contrast, overexpression of TLR4 increases the DNA damage response induced by TiO2 NPs. The results indicate that co-transfection of TRL4 expression vector affects the sensitivity of DNA damage response, but does not affect the detection limit of the DNA damage response. These finding will aid in understanding the molecular interaction mechanisms between NPs and cells.