Optical imaging and anticancer chemotherapy through carbon dot created hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles.

Abstract

Multifunctional nanocarrier-based theranostics is currently considered to solve some key unmet challenges in cancer treatment. Here we report a nanocarrier platform, named carbon dot (CD) created mesoporous hollow organosilica (C-hMOS) nanoparticles, to deliver anticancer drug and to enable optical imaging. The hollow structure was formed by the removal of a nanorod core template, and at the same time, the fluorescent signal was endowed from the heat-treated organosilica network. Thanks to the hollow and mesoporous structure, the C-hMOS effectively loaded doxorubicin (DOX) for cancer chemotherapy. The DOX was released from C-hMOS highly sustainably (over 12days) and pH-dependently (pH 5.0 >pH 7.4). The DOX-loading C-hMOS internalized cancer cells efficiently (>90%), and induced cellular apoptosis including the expression of caspase-3. The treatment of C-hMOS to cancer cells enabled multi-color visualization in vitro, suggesting the possibility of cell tracing. Moreover, when injected intratumorally in mice, the C-hMOS exhibited strong optical signals in vivo along with a high optical stability (over a week). The injected C-hMOS were distributed only a fraction in liver but not in heart, lung, spleen or kidney and displayed good biocompatibility. The DOX-delivering C-hMOS significantly suppressed the in vivo tumor growth associated with apoptotic functions. Taken together, the developed C-hMOS nanoparticles can be a promising nanoplatform for drug delivery and in vivo imaging in cancer treatment.

STATEMENT OF SIGNIFICANCE:

Multifunctional nanoparticles that combine chemotherapeutic ability with imaging modality comprise promising platform for cancer theranostics. Here we developed a novel theranostic nanoparticle, i.e., carbon-dot created mesoporous hollow silica nanoparticle, to offer unique merit for this purpose. The in vitro and in vivo findings to support this include: i) carbon dots with 1-2nm size in situ generated discretely and uniformly within silica network, ii) hollow and mesoporous structure effective for loading of DOX at high content, iii) release behavior of DOX in a sustainable and pH-dependent manner, iv) chemotherapeutic efficacy in killing cancer cells and suppressing tumor growth through DOX delivery, and v) carbon dot induced multi-color fluorescence imaging within cells and tumor tissues. These collective multifaceted properties may facilitate the novel carbon dot nanocarriers to be a potential candidate for delivering anticancer drug and non-invasive imaging in cancer treatment.

• Authors: Min Sil Kang, Rajendra K Singh, Tae-Hyun Kim, Joong-Hyun Kim, Kapil D Patel, Hae-Won Kim
• Journal: Acta biomaterialia (Acta Biomater) Vol. 55 Pg. 466-480 (06 2017) ISSN: 1878-7568 [Electronic] England
• PMID: 28373086 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)
• Copyright: Copyright © 2017 Acta Materialia Inc. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Chemical References

• Drug Carriers
• Carbon
• Silicon Dioxide
• Doxorubicin

Topics

• Animals
• Carbon (chemistry, pharmacology)
• Doxorubicin (chemistry, pharmacology)
• Drug Carriers (chemistry, pharmacology)
• HeLa Cells
• Humans
• Mice, Inbred BALB C
• Mice, Nude
• Nanoparticles (chemistry, therapeutic use)
• Neoplasms, Experimental (diagnostic imaging, drug therapy)
• Porosity
• Silicon Dioxide (chemistry, pharmacology)
• Theranostic Nanomedicine (methods)
• Tomography, Optical Coherence
• Xenograft Model Antitumor Assays