6-Mercaptopurine Loaded Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles as Sustained Drug Delivery for Cancer

Abstract

Hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles were successfully fabricated and functionalized, and all functionalized hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles maintained 150 μm particle size and 8 nm pore size. The loading capacity of the hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles to the anticancer drug, 6-MP, can be controlled via precise functionalization and concentration during the formulation. The formulation F1, F2, F3, F4, and F5 showed the drug entrapment with values of 35.87, 32.95, 63.42, 48.22, and 57.53%, respectively. The presence of amine groups on the surface of nanoparticles resulted in the highest loading capacity of 63.42%, due to the amine functionalized nanoparticles having a similar hydrophilicity but reverse charge to the drug. The percentage cumulative drug release of the formulations F1, F2, F3, F4, and F5 were optimized according to drug entrapment efficiency. The drug release was performed for 20 h, which were found to be 78.97%, 74.49%, 92.05%, 70.13%, and 83.72%, respectively. The loaded MSNs were shown to release the drug for more than 20 h and thus sustained the release. The % tumor growth inhibitions (TGI) that were found for formulations 6-MP, F1, F2, F3, F4, and F5 were 10.3, 12.4, 14.92, 25.42, 17.56, and 21.71%, respectively. The prepared formulation F3 showed the most excellent effect and maximum percentage TGI effect to comparison with other formulations due to high drug entrapment and better drug release from the formulation. The enhanced drug entrapment to hollow MSNs has demonstrated that it can become potential intracellular delivery of 6-MP for antitumor agents.