Interest in research of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) is growing due its biomedical applications, drug delivery capabilities, pore sizes and surface characteristics. In this research, we report the synthesis and characterization of MSN crystals, MSN with a calcium coating and MSN with a gold nano shell coating. All three systems were compared to study their efficiency for drug delivery capabilities. The particles were characterized by performing FT- IR spectroscopy, Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and UV-Vis spectroscopy. The silica-based nanoparticles have spherical morphology and a mean size of 120 nm. Drug loading was evaluated after the exposure of the nanoparticles to different volumes of a fixed drug concentration. The drugs used for this project were curcumin and capecitabine, two anti-cancer drugs at two different concentrations. After encapsulation was completed, the drug release capabilities were evaluated through the exposure to different pH solutions simulating the physiological environment and acid pH. Our results showed that after 24 hours our non-modified MSN particles had a maximum encapsulation of 40% while the carbonate coating had an encapsulation of 48%. In addition, the release studies showed similar results, the calcium carbonate coating provides a more efficient encapsulation. At a pH 7, after 24 hours our MSN with calcium carbonate coating showed a maximum release of 99.7%, while our non-modified MSN showed a 57.7%. The data presented here demonstrates that calcium corbonate coating increase the efficiency of both drug loading and drug release. We hope to evaluate these conditions with the MSN nanoparticles with a gold nano shell coating.

Preparation and modification of mesoporous silica nanoparticles-based drug carriers as pH responsive delivery system

ACS Spring 2022

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