Systematic investigation of in vitro and in vivo safety, toxicity and degradation of mesoporous silica nanoparticles synthesized using commercial sodium silicate

Abstract

Abstract Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have been extensively investigated as drug delivery carriers due to their unique properties. Although MSNs synthesized using a very economic source of silica, sodium silicate, are promising carriers for drug delivery, information regarding their biocompatibility and in vivo toxicity is scarce. In the present work, biocompatibility, toxicity profile and degradation of mesoporous silica nanoparticles synthesized using commercial sodium silicate have been studied. In vitro degradation studies confirmed that MSNs got degraded to silicic acid within 6 days in PBS 7.4 The synthesized MSNs were found to be biocompatible to different cell lines such as human embryonic kidney (HEK-293) cells, human caucasian colon adenocarcinoma (Caco-2) cells, human liver carcinoma (HepG2) cells and mouse fibroblast (3T3) cells with greater than 90% cell viability at concentration of 200 μg/mL. They did not cause significant hemolysis (only 1.87%) up to 200 μg/mL concentration when incubated for 2 h with chicken red blood cells. Furthermore, hematological and biochemical tests of blood samples as well as histopathological examinations of tissues after MSN injection, confirmed that the MSNs were well tolerated by mice up to 40 mg/kg. Injected MSNs were completely excreted out through urine and feces by rats (injected intravenously with 20 mg/kg of MSNs) within 4 days in form of silicic acid.