THE BIO-MOLECULAR ANALYSIS OF TITANIUM DIOXIDE NANOPARTICLES EXPOSURE ON CARDIOMYOCYTES

Abstract

The increasing prominence of nanotechnology on the global economy has raised the need to address the safety of nanoparticles (NPs) on humans. However, the increasing large number of NPs required for testing has led to the need for new alternative testing strategies via computational means to replace the costly and laborious animal testing. Yet, such testing requires the understanding and identification of relevant safety biological endpoints to work. To approach this bottleneck, the use of quantitative proteomics approach using isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantitation (iTRAQ™) was proposed to identify these biological endpoints. Using the H9c2 cardiomyocyte as an <i>in vitro</i> model, titanium dioxide (TiO₂) NPs was applied to understand how TiO₂ NPs can affect the heart. The study identified the localization of TiO₂ NPs in the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). ER stress and elevated oxidative stress was observed. The generation of ER stress inhibited the global protein synthesis.