Probing synergistic toxicity effects on living cells by combination of two different sized nanoparticles by a whole-cell based biochip

In this study, a whole-cell based capacitive sensor chip was employed to determine the toxicity effects caused by pure and mixed combinations of TiO₂ and Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles (NPs). Our results demonstrated that the cells-on-chip severely affected by the exposure of pure forms of NPs, while a synergistic effect occurred with significantly less toxicity when TiO₂:Fe₃O₄ combinations were used. The toxic effects with pure forms of NPs are attributed to disorganization of cell-surface charges dominated as compared to exposure of mixed combinations of NPs. The developed whole-cell chip offered real-time, label-free and non-invasive detection tool for probing cellular responses against NPs.