Sno2 Nanoparticles Induced Apoptosis in Human Cervical Cancer Cells

Background and aim: cervical cancer is one of the most frequent gynecological cancers. there is a great need of new alternative therapy for cervical cancer due to the side effects and low efficacies of current surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. unique feature of nanoparticles (nps) to kill cancer cells selectively is now emerging as a new tool in cancer therapy. metal oxide nps induces cytotoxicity through the generation of ros and oxidative stress that can be a potent therapeutic agent towards cancerous cell lines. tin (iv) oxide (sno2) is one of the well-studied semiconducting nanoparticles known for its vast applications in biomedicine. the aim of the present study was to investigate the cytotoxic mechanism of sno2 nps in human cervical cancer cells. methods: hela as a human cervical cancer and l929 as a normal mouse fibroblast cell lines were obtained from the national cell bank of iran (pasteur institute, tehran, iran) and cultured at standard condition. to determine the cytotoxicity of the sno2 nps, cells were cultured in 6 well plates and treated with different concentration of sno2 nps for 24h. following treatment, total rna was extracted and real time pcr was performed to evaluate the mrna expression levels of apoptosis genes (bax and bcl2). results: real time pcr results showed that sno2 nps treatment decreased bcl-2 (0.34 ±0.74 (p< 0.05)) and increased bax (2.84 ± 0.46 (p<0.05) expression level in hela cells in compare to normal l929 cells. conclusion: the results of the present study revealed for the first time that sno2 nps is cytotoxic against hela cells and suppresses hela cells growth through induction of apoptosis which can be consider as a potential drug for future therapeutic approach.