Outside-in synthesis of mesoporous silica/molybdenum disulfide nanoparticles for antitumor application

Abstract Very different from traditional inside-out method, which used guest material as the inside core and then surface-coated outer layer, herein, we propose a facile and unique outside-in approach for the synthesis of high dispersive mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN)/MoS 2 -PEG nanoparticles (SMPs) based on the differences of precursor solubility in different solvents, for the first time. The prepared SMPs exhibit both higher drug loading efficiency of 64.7% owing to the pore structure of mesoporous silica, and excellent photothermal performance with photothermal efficiency of 41.5% due to the inside decorated MoS 2 nanosheets, which could be used for the combination of tumor hyperthermia and chemotherapy. The in vivo results indicate that SMPs show great synergistic effect, i.e. , the heat produced during PTT can increase the chemotherapy sensitivity of DOX and synergistically improve its therapeutic effect. Such a facile strategy provides a new facile way to construct a novel theranostic agent by integrating different functions into one dosage, and shows a promising approach for the construction of nanomaterials using MSN as a template.