Towards site-specific nanoparticles for drug delivery application: preparation, characterization and release performance

Due to the uncontrollable drug release, traditional chemotherapies could cause great side-effects and are detrimental to normal tissue or organs. Therefore, to avoid those side-effects, drug delivery system (DDS) which is capable of releasing drug molecules at target area with controllable rate according to the development of the disease or to certain functions of the organism/biological rhythm, has attracted especially focus in recent years. In this research, we devoted our efforts in constructing a core–shell nanocomposite to meet the above requirements. The superparamagnetic Fe3O4 nanoparticles were chosen as the core to introduce the magnetic guiding as well as site-specific properties in this novel drug carrier. The core was further encapsulated by silica-based molecular sieve MCM-41 (briefly denoted as MS in this research), which was consisted by immense highly ordered hexagonal tunnels to offer plenty cavity for molecules of drug. A light stimuli-responsive ligand, which is a derivative from light-responsive precursor 4,5-diazafluoren-9-one (indicated in the paper as DAFO), was further connected to the MCM-41 tunnels. The ligand can be excited by light and will flip over, making the tunnels of MCM-41 switch from close to open with light on and light off. The nanocomposite thus became capable of releasing drug molecules at certain wavelength of light. In the final, the nanoparticles were tested via SEM/TEM, XRD, FT-IR spectra, thermogravimetry and N2 adsorption/desorption to verify the structure. The MTT testing of our nanocomposite reveals no obvious cytotoxicity with non-morbid L929 murine fibroblast cells line, indicating that it could be used as a DDS candidate. The cargo releasing behaviors were studied on cytarabine loaded composite: DAFO@MS@Fe3O4 in simulated body fluids.