Multifunctional Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles with Different Morphological Characteristics for In Vitro Cancer Treatment

Abstract It has been widely reported that the shape of nanoparticles can significantly affect their nonspecific uptake into tumor cells. In this work, We prepared three different morphologies of mesoporous silica nanoparticles and explained the mechanism, and three types of multifunctional mesoporous silica nanoparticles with different morphological characteristics (DOX@MSN-x-PEG-FA) was first synthesized using rosin as an additive agent, and then constructed for targeted drug delivery systems (TDDS) carrying doxorubicin (DOX) as a model drug. The morphology and structural properties of these nanoparticles were characterized by means of SEM, TEM and N2 adsorption/desorption, and the biocompatibility of blank nanoparticles was evaluated by hemolysis assay. Utilizing the kinetic model, the loading and releasing mechanisms of DOX were also evaluated. The drug adsorption process is mainly carried out by chemical adsorption (covalent bonding), and the release process followed an anomalous (non-Fick) transport mechanism. These DOX@MSN-x-PEG-FA exhibited a pH-dependent and sustained drug release behavior which are the required properties for drug delivery systems. Compared to the other two samples, DOX@MSN-80-PEG-FA possessed the highest cell-targeted uptake capacity and apoptosis rate, indicating that it is a promising drug delivery system for cancer-targeted therapy.