Dye-doped silica nanoparticles as luminescent organized systems for nanomedicine

Abstract

The ability to find synergic solutions is the core of scientific research and scientific advancement. This is particularly true for medicine, where multimodal imaging and theranostic tools represent the frontier research. Nanotechnology, which by its very nature is multidisciplinary, has opened up the way to the engineering of new organized materials endowed with improved performances. In particular, merging nanoparticles and luminescent signalling can lead to the creation of unique tools for the design of inexpensive, hand-held diagnostic and theranostic kits. In this wide scenario, dye-doped silica nanoparticles constitute very effective nanoplatforms to obtain efficient luminescent, stable, biocompatible and targeted agents for biomedical applications. In this review we discuss the state of the art in the field of luminescent silica-based nanoparticles for medical imaging, starting with an overview of the most common synthetic approaches to these materials. Trying to rationalize the presentation of this extremely multifaceted and complex subject, we have gathered significant examples of systems applied in cancer research, also discussing those that take a multifunctional approach, including theranostic structures. Nanoprobes designed for applications that do not include cancer are a minor part, but interesting achievements have been published and we present a selection of these in the subsequent section. To conclude, we propose a debate on the advantages of creating chemosensors based on luminescent silica nanoparticles. This is far from easy but is a particularly valuable goal in the medical field and therefore subject to extensive research worldwide.

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles trigger mitophagy in endothelial cells and perturb neuronal network activity in a size- and time-dependent manner

“…interaction with the brain, the most delicate tissue in the human body. 29,30 Studies in rodents have shown that MSNPs (,500 nm in size) are able to cross the blood-brain barrier 31 from the periphery, even in the absence of specific surface functionalization for brain targeting. We used an in vitro multiparametric approach to investigate relationships among the size, dose, and exposure time of MSNPs and cellular responses, trying to elucidate the mechanisms of NP-cell interaction.…”

Interaction of SiO2 nanoparticles with neuronal cells: Ionic mechanisms involved in the perturbation of calcium homeostasis

“…While they are considered to be among the most biocompatible NPs (Huang et al, 2005;Izak-Nau et al, 2014;Kim et al, 2006), extensive knowledge of the cellular responses elicited by their interaction is still incomplete. This is of particular relevance for the nervous system (NS): nanoneuromedicine is rapidly gaining momentum (Gendelman et al, 2014),and silica NPs are good candidates for applications in this field, ranging from drug delivery (Rosenholmet al, 2011) to cell tracking and subcellular imaging (Montalti et al, 2014). They can pass the blood brain barrier (Kim et al, 2006); moreover, protocols for direct access of NPs to the cerebrospinal fluid have been proposed (Papisov et al, 2013).…”

Direct chemical grafted curcumin on halloysite nanotubes as dual-responsive prodrug for pharmacological applications

“…Additionally, both curcumin-phospholipid complexes and structural analog of curcumin were successfully synthesized. However, DDS are not suitable for biomedical applications because of poor circulation stability, toxic side effects and low therapeutic efficacy [34][35][36][37][38][39].…”