Mesoporous silica nanoparticles functionalized with hyaluronic acid. Effect of the biopolymer chain length on cell internalization

Abstract

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) were functionalized with amino groups (MSN-NH) and then with hyaluronic acid, a biocompatible biopolymer which can be recognized by CD44 receptors in tumor cells, to obtain a targeting drug delivery system. To this purpose, three hyaluronic acid samples differing for the molecular weight, namely HA (8-15 kDa), HA (30-50 kDa) and HA (90-130 kDa), were used. The MSN-HA, MSN-HA, and MSN-HA materials were characterized through zeta potential and dynamic light scattering measurements at pH = 7.4 and T = 37 °C to simulate physiological conditions. While zeta potential showed an increasing negative value with the increase of the HA chain length, an anomalous value of the hydrodynamic diameter was observed for MSN-HA, which was smaller than that of MSN-HA and MSN-HA samples. The cellular uptake of MSN-HA samples on HeLa cells at 37 °C was studied by optical and electron microscopy. HA chain length affected significantly the cellular uptake that occurred at a higher extent for MSN-NH and MSN-HA than for MSN-HA and MSN-HA samples. Cellular uptake experiments carried out at 4 °C showed that the internalization process was inhibited for MSN-HA samples but not for MSN-NH. This suggests the occurrence of two different mechanisms of internalization. For MSN-NH the uptake is mainly driven by the attractive electrostatic interaction with membrane phospholipids, while MSN-HA internalization involves CD44 receptors overexpressed in HeLa cells.

<p>Enzyme-responsive mesoporous silica nanoparticles for tumor cells and mitochondria multistage-targeted drug delivery</p>

“…MSNs exhibited the typical Si-O vibration at 1,100 cm −1 (Figure 2A). 39 No additional peaks at 2,800 cm −1 corresponding to the C-H vibration of CTAC could be observed, indicating the good purity of MSNs. MSN-NH 2 revealed a new band of amino groups (–NH 2 ) at around 1,530 cm −1 , indicating the functionalization of amino groups onto MSN 39,40.…”

Antioxidant Nanomaterial Based on Core–Shell Silica Nanospheres with Surface-Bound Caffeic Acid: A Promising Vehicle for Oxidation-Sensitive Drugs

“…Additionally, their surface can be easily functionalized in order to meet the needs of a controlled-release agent, to enhance the stability of the nanoparticle, to make them more biocompatible, and to improve their targeting capacity, among others [9,10,11,12,13]. To achieve the above goals, many molecules [14,15,16,17], including natural antioxidant compounds [18,19], were used as surface modifiers.…”

Multicompartmental Mesoporous Silica/Polymer Nanostructured Hybrids: Design Capabilities by Integrating Linear and Star-Shaped Block Copolymers

“…The gates open when a stimulus such as pH, temperature, light, ionic strength, magnetic field, or enzyme is applied, allowing the programmable desired payload release. Several studies were devoted to organic/inorganic polymer/MSN-based stimuli-responsive drug delivery systems [11,12], mainly pH-responsive [13][14][15][16], thermo-responsive [17], or responsive to more than one stimulus (e.g., pHand thermo-responsive [18,19] or photo-and thermo-responsive [20]). In these systems, the polymers…”