Mesoporous Bioactive Glass Functionalized with AIEgens for pH Sensing and Drug Delivery

Multifunctional materials combining fluorescence for drug delivery have been successfully developed by post grafted Aggregation-Induced Emission luminogens (AIEgens) onto Mesoporous Bioactive Glass (MBG). The synthesized hybrid materials combine porous structure of MBG and strong luminescence of AIEgens, showing ordered two-dimensional hexagonal mesostructure and strong blue emission. It is worth noting that the emission color of the hybrid materials can reversible cycled between blue and yellow by changing the pH value of water solution. More importantly, the hybrid materials exhibit a drastically improved apatite forming ability by soaked in Simulated Body Fluid (SBF). Furthermore, the hybrid materials can be used for site-specific delivery of doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) triggered by the mildly acidic pH environment, suggesting that the AIEgens functionalized mesoporous bioactive glass have great potential applications as drug-loading biomaterial for imaging guided therapy.