Mesoporous silica nanoparticles for efficient rivastigmine hydrogen tartrate delivery into SY5Y cells

Rivastigmine hydrogen tartrate (RT) is a molecule with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties used for the treatment of the Alzheimer's disease. In this work, the larger pore size of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (P1-MSN) was synthesized and then, P1-MSN were functionalized by succinic anhydride (S-P1-MSN) and 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (APTES) (AP-CO-P1-MSN) using the grafting and co-condensation methods, respectively. A new method was used for the functionalization of P1-MSN by succinic anhydride at room temperature. Nanoparticles were characterized by special instrumental analysis and loaded by RT. Maximum entrapment efficiency and RT loading percentage into P1-MSN, AP-CO-P1-MSN and S-P1-MSN were respectively obtained as 21.26 and 25.5%, 41.5 and 49.8%, and 11.9 and 14.28% for 24 h. In the simulated gastric and body fluids, the release rate of RT-loaded AP-CO-P1-MSN (AP-CO-P1-MSN-RT) was lower than that of other RT-loaded nanoparticles. In oral pathway, the sustained release of RT was observed in AP-CO-P1-MSN-RT. Moreover, no cytotoxicity effect was observed for P1-MSN, but the cells treated by AP-CO-P1-MSN showed a reduction in SY5Y cell viability due to easy entrance of these nanoparticles and their accumulation in different parts of the cell as observed by TEM.