In last decade numerous mesoporous silica nanoparticle (MSN) drug carriers and theranostic agents have been designed however, their toxicity remains a matter of intensive debate. In this work, we systematically evaluated interactions of a series of MSNs possessing different surface functional groups (ionic, polar and hydrophobic) with blood constituents, in terms of their hemolytic activity, thrombogenicity, and adsorption of proteins on their surfaces. Using a hemolysis assay we showed that surface functionalization can prevent the toxicity of bare MSNs on Human Red Blood Cells. We investigated thrombogenicity of MSNs by measuring whole blood clotting time. We observed that bare MSNs exhibited high thrombogenic activity, which can be significantly reduced by functionalization of MSNs with positively charged groups. We examined non-specific protein adsorption on MSN surfaces using human serum albumin (HSA) and determined that surface functionalization generally increased HSA adsorption with the exception of negatively charged methylphosphonate groups.

Effect of mesoporous silica nanoparticle surface functionalization on toxicity to red blood cells, thrombogenicity, and protein adsorption

244th National Meeting (2012)

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