Nano Research

, Volume 8, Issue 3, pp 751–764 | Cite as

Mesoporous silica nanorods intrinsically doped with photosensitizers as a multifunctional drug carrier for combination therapy of cancer

  • Guangbao Yang
  • Hua Gong
  • Xiaoxin Qian
  • Pengli Tan
  • Zhiwei Li
  • Teng Liu
  • Jingjing Liu
  • Youyong Li
  • Zhuang Liu
Research Article
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Abstract

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have attracted tremendous attention in recent years as drug delivery carriers due to their large surface areas, tunable sizes, facile modification and considerable biocompatibility. In this work, we fabricate an interesting type of MSNs which are intrinsically doped with photosensitizing molecules, chlorin e6 (Ce6). By increasing the amount of Ce6 doped inside the silica matrix, it is found that the morphology of MSNs changes from spheres to rod-like shapes. The obtained Ce6-doped mesoporous silica nanorods (CMSNRs) are not only able to produce singlet oxygen for photodynamic therapy, but can also serve as a drug delivery platform with high drug loading capacity by utilizing their mesoporous structure. Compared to spherical nanoparticles, it is found that CMSNRs with a larger aspect ratio show much faster uptake by cancer cells. With doxorubicin (DOX) employed as a model drug, the combined photodynamic and chemotherapy is carried out, achieving synergistic anti-tumor effects both in vitro and in vivo. Our study presents a new design of an MSN-based drug delivery platform, which intrinsically is fluorescent and able to serve as a photodynamic agent, promising for future imaging-guided combination therapy of cancer.

Keywords

mesoporous silica nanorods chlorin e6 photodynamic therapy drug delivery combination therapy 
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Copyright information

© Tsinghua University Press and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Guangbao Yang
    • 1
  • Hua Gong
    • 1
  • Xiaoxin Qian
    • 1
  • Pengli Tan
    • 1
  • Zhiwei Li
    • 1
  • Teng Liu
    • 1
  • Jingjing Liu
    • 1
  • Youyong Li
    • 1
  • Zhuang Liu
    • 1
  1. 1.Institute of Functional Nano and Soft Materials (FUNSOM), Collaborative Innovation Center of Suzhou Nano Science and TechnologySoochow UniversitySuzhou, JiangsuChina

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