Cloaking mesoporous silica nanoparticles with phenylboronic acid-conjugated human serum albumin-co-polydopamine films for targeted drug delivery

Abstract

Preparation of nanoparticles with stealth capabilities and active targeting abilities is still a research hot spot. In this work, non-PEGylated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) with the property of stealth in the blood stream are prepared by immobilizing human serum albumin (HSA) and polydopamine (PDA) on the surface of MSNs to form an albumin-rich protein corona and modifying with 4-aminophenylboronic acid (PBA) to actively target the 4T1 tumor cells, namely MSN-PDA-HSA-PBA (MPHP). The MPHP exhibits much lower intake by the macrophages and achieves much better targeting efficiency toward 4T1 cells, which are evaluated by cellular uptake and targeting assay in vitro. Besides, gemcitabine (GEM) is chose as the model drug and the results of in vitro cellular cytotoxicity and apoptosis suggest that the prepared MPHP/GEM has higher antitumor efficiency in comparison to free GEM. What's more, MPHP/GEM shows better in vivo inhabitation of the growth of 4T1 tumor than MSN/GEM. Above results suggest that MPHP is a promising carrier which can be used for cancer treatment.