School of Food and Biological Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui 230009, People's Republic of China. Key Laboratory of Metabolism and Regulation for Major Diseases of Anhui Higher Education Institutes, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei, Anhui 230009, People's Republic of China.
Nanotechnology. 2020 Nov 13;31(46):465102. doi: 10.1088/1361-6528/abadc6.
The biological effects of nanoparticles are of great importance for the in-depth understanding of safety issues in biomedical applications. Induction of autophagy is a cellular response after nanoparticle exposure. Bismuth sulfide nanoparticles (BiS NPs) are often used as a CT contrast agent because of their excellent photoelectric conversion ability. Yet there has been no previous detailed study other than a cell toxicity assessment. In this study, three types of BiS NPs with different shapes (BiS nano rods (BSNR), hollow microsphere BiS NPs (BSHS) and urchin-like hollow microsphere BiS NPs (ULBSHS)) were used to evaluatecytotoxicity, autophagy induction, cell migration and invasion in human hepatocellular carcinoma cells (HepG2). Results showed that all three BiS NPs lead to blockage in autophagic flux, causing p62 protein accumulation. The cell death caused by these BiS NPs is proved to be autophagy related, rather than related to apoptosis. Moreover, BiS NPs can reduce the migration and invasion in HepG2 cells in an autophagy-dependent manner. ULBSHS is the most cytotoxic among three BiS NPs and has the best tumor metastasis suppression. These results demonstrated that, even with relatively low toxicity of BiS NPs, autophagy blockage may still substantially influence cell fate and thus significantly impact their biomedical applications, and that surface topography is a key factor regulating their biological response.
纳米颗粒的生物学效应对于深入了解生物医学应用中的安全问题非常重要。自噬是纳米颗粒暴露后细胞的一种反应。硫化铋纳米颗粒（BiS NPs）由于其优异的光电转换能力，常被用作 CT 对比剂。然而，除了细胞毒性评估外，之前没有进行过详细的研究。在这项研究中，使用了三种不同形状的 BiS NPs（BiS 纳米棒（BSNR）、中空微球 BiS NPs（BSHS）和仿刺参状中空微球 BiS NPs（ULBSHS））来评估它们对人肝癌细胞（HepG2）的细胞毒性、自噬诱导、细胞迁移和侵袭的影响。结果表明，这三种 BiS NPs 均导致自噬流阻断，导致 p62 蛋白积累。这些 BiS NPs 引起的细胞死亡被证明与自噬有关，而不是与凋亡有关。此外，BiS NPs 可以通过自噬依赖性方式降低 HepG2 细胞的迁移和侵袭。ULBSHS 是三种 BiS NPs 中细胞毒性最强的，对肿瘤转移的抑制作用最好。这些结果表明，即使 BiS NPs 的毒性相对较低，自噬阻断仍可能显著影响细胞命运，从而对其生物医学应用产生重大影响，并且表面形貌是调节其生物学反应的关键因素。
