Mesoporous silica nanoparticles functionalized with folic acid/methionine for active targeted delivery of docetaxel

Abstract

Pegah Khosravian,1 Mehdi Shafiee Ardestani,2 Mehdi Khoobi,3 Seyed Naser Ostad,4 Farid Abedin Dorkoosh,1 Hamid Akbari Javar,1,* Massoud Amanlou5,6,* 1Department of Pharmaceutics, 2Department of Radiopharmacy, 3Department of Pharmaceutical Biomaterials, 4Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, 5Department of Medicinal Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center, 6Drug Design and Development Research Center, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran *These authors contributed equally to this work Abstract: Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) are known as carriers with high loading capacity and large functionalizable surface area for target-directed delivery. In this study, a series of docetaxel-loaded folic acid- or methionine-functionalized mesoporous silica nanoparticles (DTX/MSN-FA or DTX/MSN-Met) with large pores and amine groups at inner pore surface properties were prepared. The results showed that the MSNs were successfully synthesized, having good pay load and pH-sensitive drug release kinetics. The cellular investigation on MCF-7 cells showed better performance of cytotoxicity and cell apoptosis and an increase in cellular uptake of targeted nanoparticles. In vivo fluorescent imaging on healthy BALB/c mice proved that bare MSN-NH2 are mostly accumulated in the liver but MSN-FA or MSN-Met are more concentrated in the kidney. Importantly, ex vivo fluorescent images of tumor-induced BALB/c mice organs revealed the ability of MSN-FA to reach the tumor tissues. In conclusion, DTX/MSNs exhibited a good anticancer activity and enhanced the possibility of targeted drug delivery for breast cancer. Keywords: targeted delivery, mesoporous silica nanoparticle, folic acid, methionine, docetaxel

Keywords

• targeted delivery
• mesoporous silica nanoparticle
• folic acid
• methionine
• docetaxel