On/off-switchable anti-neoplastic nanoarchitecture

Throughout the world, there are increasing demands for alternate approaches to advanced cancer therapeutics. Numerous potentially chemotherapeutic compounds are developed every year for clinical trial and some of them are considered as potential drug candidates. Nanotechnology-based approaches have accelerated the discovery process, but the key challenge still remains to develop therapeutically viable and physiologically safe materials suitable for cancer therapy. Here, we report a high turnover, on/off-switchable functionally popping reactive oxygen species (ROS) generator using a smart mesoporous titanium dioxide popcorn (TiO(2) Pops) nanoarchitecture. The resulting TiO(2) Pops, unlike TiO(2) nanoparticles (TiO(2) NPs), are exceptionally biocompatible with normal cells. Under identical conditions, TiO(2) Pops show very high photocatalytic activity compared to TiO(2) NPs. Upon on/off-switchable photo activation, the TiO(2) Pops can trigger the generation of high-turnover flash ROS and can deliver their potential anticancer effect by enhancing the intracellular ROS level until it crosses the threshold to open the ‘death gate’, thus reducing the survival of cancer cells by at least six times in comparison with TiO(2) NPs without affecting the normal cells.