Functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles by lactose and hydrophilic polymer as a hepatocellular carcinoma drug delivery system

Abstract

Surface modification has a strong impact on mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) performance as drug carriers. Here, we described the chemical synthesis; in vitro drug release and cytotoxicity of MSNs decorated with poly ethylene glycol (PEG) or poly propylene glycol PPG as an outer shell wrap for nanoparticles (NPs). The lactose, glucosylgalactose, was used to provide a specific interaction with the asialoglycoprotein receptor which is expressed on the cell surface of hepatoma. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) confirmed successful chemical surface modification while Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) confirmed the surface characteristic changes as size; polydispersity index (PI) and zeta potential. Our results showed that the PI was improved from 0.58 to 0.28 while size has been enlarged from 200 to 357 and 580 nm. A higher percentage of drug entrapment (doxorubicin) was observed with functionalized NPs (94%) compared to plain MSNs (63%). In this study, we effectively synthesized lactose-PPG-MSNs targeting HepG2 cells with IC50 of 0.07 mg/mL when loaded with doxorubicin. This study may provide a useful approach for designing and improving the applicability of MSNs as a promising drug delivery system in hepatocellular carcinoma.