Toxicological Evaluation of Luminescent Silica Nanoparticles as New Drug Nanocarriers in Different Cancer Cell Lines.

Gonçalo Marcelo,José Luis Capelo,Helena Carmo,Jessica Ariana-Machado,Maria Enea,Benito Rodríguez-González,Elisabete Oliveira,Carlos Lodeiro

doi:10.3390/ma11081310

Abstract

Luminescent mesoporous silica nanoparticles, CdTeQDs@MNs@PEG1, SiQDs@Isoc@MNs and SiQDs@Isoc@MNs@PEG2, were successfully synthetized and characterized by SEM, TEM, XRD, N2 nitrogen isotherms, 1H NMR, IR, absorption, and emission spectroscopy. Cytotoxic evaluation of these nanoparticles was performed in relevant in vitro cell models, such as human hepatoma HepG2, human brain endothelial (hCMEC/D3), and human epithelial colorectal adenocarcinoma (Caco-2) cell lines. None of the tested nanoparticles showed significant cytotoxicity in any of the three performed assays (MTT/NR/ LDH) compared with the respective solvent and/or coating controls, excepting for CdTeQDs@MNs@PEG1 nanoparticles, where significant toxicity was noticed in hCMEC/D3 cells. The results presented reveal that SiQDs-based mesoporous silica nanoparticles are promising nanoplatforms for cancer treatment, with a pH-responsive drug release profile and the ability to load 80% of doxorubicin.

Highlights

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MNs) are considered one of the most powerful mesoporous structures as they generally are bio-compatible and their surfaces can be modified, providing reservoirs for loading various functional molecules as nanocarriers and active sites for linking other targeted molecules by covalent association [1]
In order to improve the stability and biocompatibility of CdTeQDs@MNs nanoparticles, already published by us in [24], a polymer PEG1 was functionalized onto mesoporous silica surface, leading to CdTeQDs@MNs@PEG1 nanoparticles
Results are expressed as mean ± standard error of the mean (SEM) (n = 3 independent experiments)

Summary

Introduction

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MNs) are considered one of the most powerful mesoporous structures as they generally are bio-compatible and their surfaces can be modified, providing reservoirs for loading various functional molecules as nanocarriers and active sites for linking other targeted molecules by covalent association [1]. To facilitate the tracking of silica or silica-coated nanoparticles in a biological system, MNs are commonly labeled with fluorophores. Due to their improved optical properties, quantum dots (QDs) have emerged as a new alternative luminescent source to fluorophores, avoiding time-consuming and expensive methods and several additional issues such as high toxicity [2,3,4]. The encapsulation of inorganic QDs with MNs has been widely investigated, and methods can be grouped into two general categories: The coating of inorganic QDs with MNs or the introduction of QDs into MNs pores (dye-doping)

Methods

Results

Conclusion