Mesoporous Silicon Nanoparticles with Liver-Targeting and pH-Response-Release Function Are Used for Targeted Drug Delivery in Liver Cancer Treatment

Abstract

This article aims to develop an aspirin-loaded double-modified nano-delivery system for the treatment of hepatocellular carcinoma. In this paper, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) were prepared by the “one-pot two-phase layering method”, and polydopamine (PDA) was formed by the self-polymerization of dopamine as a pH-sensitive coating. Gal-modified PDA-modified nanoparticles (Gal-PDA-MSN) were synthesized by linking galactosamine (Gal) with actively targeted galactosamine (Gal) to PDA-coated MSN by a Michael addition reaction. The size, particle size distribution, surface morphology, BET surface area, mesoporous size, and pore volume of the prepared nanoparticles were characterized, and their drug load and drug release behavior in vitro were investigated. Gal-PDA-MSN is pH sensitive and targeted. MSN@Asp is different from the release curves of PDA-MSN@Asp and Gal-PDA-MSN@Asp, the drug release of PDA-MSN@Asp and Gal-PDA-MSN@Asp accelerates with increasing acidity. In vitro experiments showed that the toxicity and inhibitory effects of the three nanodrugs on human liver cancer HepG2 cells were higher than those of free Asp. This drug delivery system facilitates controlled release and targeted therapy.