Drug induced catanionic vesicles assisted fabrication of hollow silica nano-spheres as the new age chemo-drug carrier

Abstract Surfactant vesicles have elicited the attention because of their non-toxic nature, ease of preparation, low cost programmable drug delivery vehicle and soft templates for the organized nano-assemblies. To unleash their potential as the new age drug carrier, herein we have designed catanionic vesicles formed through synergistic interactions between the hydrotropic drug diclofenac sodium (DS) and cationic gemini surfactants (GS) with varying alkyl chain lengths i.e. hexamethylene 1,6-bis (tetradecyl dimethyl ammonium bromide); and hexamethylene 1,6-bis (hexadecyl dimethyl ammonium bromide). The prepared catanionic vesicles were then used as the soft templates to synthesize hollow silica nano spheres with 62 nm size and 0.86 cm3/g pore volume to accommodate the anti-cancer drug imatinib mesylate. Results of encapsulation and release demonstrate that the studied system could potentially serve as a stable nano-delivery system for delivering the hydrophobic drugs in the future.