Cellulose conjugated FITC-labelled mesoporous silica nanoparticles: intracellular accumulation and stimuli responsive doxorubicin release

Herein, we design novel cellulose conjugated mesoporous silica nanoparticle (CLS-MSP) based nano-therapeutics for stimuli responsive intracellular doxorubicin (DOX) delivery. DOX molecules are entrapped in pores of the fabricated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSPs) while cellulose is used as an encapsulating material through esterification on the outlet of the pores of the MSPs to avoid premature DOX release under physiological conditions. In in vitro studies, stimuli responsive DOX release is successfully achieved from DOX loaded cellulose conjugated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (DOX/CLS-MSPs) by pH and cellulase triggers. Intracellular accumulation of DOX/CLS-MSPs in human liver cancer cells (HepG2 cells) is investigated through confocal microscope magnification. Cell viability of HepG2 cells is determined as the percentage of the cells incubated with DOX/CLS-MSPs compared with that of non-incubated cells through an MTT assay.