Abstract
We report the synthesis of Fe3O4@mSiO2 nanostructures of different meso-silica (mSiO2) shell thickness, their biocompatibility and behaviors for loading and release of a model drug ibuprofen. The composite nanostructures have superparamagnetic magnetite cores of 208 nm average size and meso-silica shells of 15 to 40 nm thickness. A modified Stöber method was used to grow the meso-silica shells over the hydrothermally grown monodispersed magnetite particles. The composite nanoparticles show very promising drug holding and releasing behaviors, which depend on the thickness of meso-silica shell. The biocompatibility of the meso-silica-coated and uncoated magnetite nanoparticles was tested through cytotoxicity assay on breast cancer (MCF-7), ovarian cancer (SKOV3), normal human lung fibroblasts MRC-5, and IMR-90 cells. The high drug holding capacity and reasonable biocompatibility of the nanostructures make them ideal agents for targeted drug delivery applications in human body.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s11671-015-0920-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
In recent decades, nanotechnology has made great strides in the design of new materials, with distinct characteristics and functionalities suitable for applications in specific areas such as in biomedicine [1], targeted drug delivery [2,3,4], and photodegradation of environmental pollutants [5,6,7]
Synthesis of Magnetite (Fe3O4) Nanoparticles Magnetite nanoparticles were synthesized through EG mediated solvothermal process following the procedure we reported earlier [26]
Synthesis of Fe3O4@mSiO2 Nanostructures For fabricating meso-silica covers over the prefabricated magnetite nanoparticles, we used a modified Stöber method [27] very similar to the method we reported earlier [26]
Summary
Nanotechnology has made great strides in the design of new materials, with distinct characteristics and functionalities suitable for applications in specific areas such as in biomedicine [1], targeted drug delivery [2,3,4], and photodegradation of environmental pollutants [5,6,7]. For targeted drug delivery applications, one of the main challenges is to develop nanostructures that can be loaded with special drug and can be transported to certain specific location of the body in a simple manner [8]. In this regard, magnetite has been the most studied material, especially as T2 contrast agent in MRI [9] due to its biocompatibility and adequate magnetic properties. Reticuloendothelial system (RES) of human body takes up bigger (>300 nm) magnetite nanoparticles
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