Abstract
Several nanocomposites based on Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles (MSN), aluminum ions, and Polyethyleneimine (PEI) were synthesized by the combination of the sol-gel and post-synthesis methods. These nanocomposites were mainly composed of MSN with the leading of Al and PEI species alone or in combination. The Al-MSN, MSN-PEI, and Al-MSN/PEI samples were characterized by using FT-IR, XRD, SEM, EDX, zeta potential, and nitrogen physisorption techniques. The potential of their RNA delivery was investigated by loading and releasing the siRNA in the phosphate buffer. The obtained results showed that the loading capacity of each sample is directly related to its zeta potential. The Al-MSN/PEI sample showed the highest siRNA adsorption capacity due to possessing the highest zeta potential resulted in the presence of the high electric charge of Al3+ and the cationic nature of PEI. Under the optimized conditions, the Al-MSN/PEI sample showed the amount of 47.19 µg adsorption of siRNA for 1.0 mg of Al-MSN/PEI. The results of releasing siRNA exhibited the yields of 12, 20.4, 29.6, and 36.0 % for MSN, MSN-PEI, Al-MSN, and Al-MSN/PEI, respectively at room temperature for 120 min.
Highlights
Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) form an outstanding class of nanomaterials when their interesting properties such as high surface areas, large pore size and volume, tunable porosity, and thermal stability are considered [1]
Two weak peaks of the C-H stretching vibrations are visible at about 2970 and 2890 cm-1 which are attributed to the presence of the PEI molecules in the MSN-PEI and Aluminium-modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles (Al-MSN)/PEI samples [41,42,43]
Zeta potential measurements showed that the loading of aluminium ions and PEI molecules to the MSN nanoparticles increased the zeta potential of the synthesized nanomaterials
Summary
Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) form an outstanding class of nanomaterials when their interesting properties such as high surface areas, large pore size and volume, tunable porosity, and thermal stability are considered [1]. Initiation and propagation of these diseases are based on the expression of certain genes that need to be silenced by the aid of small interfering RNA (siRNA) molecules. These are known as short interfering RNA or silencing RNA, a class of doublestranded RNA and non-coding RNA molecules. SiRNA may serve as the most appropriate tool for short term silencing of the protein-coding genes Such therapy requires efficient gene delivery to cells because naked nucleic acids alone are not capable of getting across cell membranes [17,18]. From a surface chemistry point of view, before nucleic acid loading, an early modification step is required because the silica surface is negatively charged under biologically related conditions [25]
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