Abstract
Functional ions and drug factors play a vital role in stimulating bone tissue regeneration as we understand it. In this work, europium-containing mesoporous bioactive glass nanospheres (Eu/MBGs), composed of 60% SiO2—(36–x)%CaO—x%Eu2O3—4%P2O5 (x = 0, 0.5, 1, 2 mol%), were prepared by a facile sol-gel process. The results indicate that Eu ions play an important role to influence the microstructure of MBGs, in which a suitable concentration of Eu (1 mol%) increases their surface area (502 m2/g) as well as their pore volume (0.34 cm3/g). Proper doping of Eu ions in MBGs can observably induce apatite mineralization and improve the doxorubicin (DOX) release behavior. Furthermore, DOX-loaded Eu/MBGs could maintain a long-term inhibitory effect on the viability of osteosarcoma MG 63 cells. This work has demonstrated that it is possible to develop functional Eu/MBGs by combining excellent apatite-mineralization ability, controllable drug (DOX) release and antitumor functions for the therapy of bone tissue regeneration.
Highlights
Cancer is one of the major causes of death in China
The result indicated that all four elements were uniformly distributed throughout the surface of nanospheres, which suggested that the composition of the prepared europium-containing mesoporous bioactive glass nanospheres (Eu/mesoporous bioactive glass nanospheres (MBGs)) was homogeneous
It can be seen that addition of Eu3+ significantly changed BET specific surface area and pore volume of MBGs, with trends in their changes behaving like a parabola
Summary
In 2014, cancer accounted for an estimated 2.3 million deaths, with 3.8 million new cases confirmed, and tumor mortality and incidence rates of 167.89 × 105 and 278.07 × 105, respectively [1]. There is urgent need for improving diagnostic means for early detection and for researching more selective drug release systems with few side effects for treatment. Compared with traditional cancer treatment, the development of nano-targeted drug release systems has led to a new strategy because cellular interaction and communication are often at the nano scale [4,5]. The foremost advantages of employing nano drug delivery systems include specific delivery for targeted action, which can overcome the barrier of drug penetration, and enhancement of the bioavailability and therapeutic performance of antitumor drugs
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