TiO2-Cu2O nano-composite was obtained by a novel electrochemical method. The effects of TiO2-Cu2O Fenton coating on proliferation and induced apoptosis in Hela cells were investigated. The changes of cell cycle were observed too. Results revealed that visible light-photocatalysis (50 mW/cm2) under 3 min resulted in considerably low cell viability and produced characteristic apoptotic events in Hela cells including morphological changes, DNA ladder formation and increased number of cells with G2/M phase. Furthermore, the mRNA level of IκBα was significantly increased under phototreatment for 5 min on Hela cells. The antioxidant defense system and MDA were investigated. It was found that the imbalance of the antioxidant enzyme system induced under the phototreatment contributed to oxidative stress. These results indicated that the TiO2-Cu2O Fenton coating led to enhanced growth inhibition and apoptotic production. The TiO2-Cu2O nano-composites might be used as a new anti-cancer modality to cancer treatment under a visible light condition.

Key words: TiO2-Cu2O nano-composite, Hela cell, visible light-photocatalysis, anti-cancer