The thermal/pH-sensitive drug delivery system encapsulated by PAA based on hollow hybrid nanospheres with two silicon source

Abstract

The synthesis of drug delivery systems based on hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) is still a major challenge. In this work, the hollow hybrid MSNs were successfully prepared by cetyltrimethylammonium bromide-directed sol-gel process and one-step hydrothermal treatment process. The hollow hybrid MSNs had hybrid ethane-bridged frameworks with the uniform particle size (250 nm) and mesoporous pore diameter (3.7 nm). The polyacrylic acid (PAA) encapsulated drug delivery system based on hollow hybrid MSNs was prepared by using silanization, surface modification, doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) loading, and PAA coating. Drug encapsulation and release behavior at different temperatures and pH were studied by using DOX as a model guest molecule. The results displayed that the modified hollow ethane-bridged MSNs possessed good biocompatibility and excellent thermal/pH-dual-sensitive drug release property. This novel thermal/pH-sensitive drug delivery system based on hollow ethane-bridged MSNs has the advantages of feasible synthesis, no cytotoxicity, and good drug loading capacity, which may have potential applications in the anticancer therapy.

Keywords:

• Two silicon source
• mesoporous silica nanoparticles
• PAA encapsulation
• thermal/pH sensitivity
• drug release

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the Opening Project of Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Chemical Materials and Devices (Jianghan University), Ministry of Education, China (JDGD-201705), and Clinical Research and Development Project of Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University, China (202008).