Light-responsive amphiphilic copolymer coated nanoparticles as nanocarriers and real-time monitors for controlled
Qingjian Xing1, Najun Li, Dongyun Chen
1Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Advanced Functional Polymer Design and Application, College of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering and Materials Science, Soochow University, Suzhou, 215123, China. linajun@suda.edu.cn lujm@suda.edu.cn.
Abstract:
Herein, light-responsive nanocarriers based on hollow mesoporous silica (HMS) nanoparticles modified with spiropyran-containing light-responsive copolymer (PRMS-FA) were fabricated via a simple self-assembly process. HMS modified with long-chain hydrocarbon octadecyltrimethoxysilane was an ideal base material owing to its good biocompatibility and drug capability. The spiropyran-containing amphiphilic copolymer could shift its hydrophilic-hydrophobic balance to become hydrophilic upon UV (λ = 365 nm) irradiation and then break away from the hydrophobic surface of the HMS core, followed by the uncaging and release of the pre-loaded anticancer drug. Simultaneously, the fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) process based on the structural transformation of PRMS-FA was observed, which could act as a real-time monitor for the light-controlled drug release. Our model experiments in vitro tested and verified that this composite nanocarrier has good biocompatibility, active tumour targeting to the folate receptor over-expressed in tumour cells, is non-toxic to normal cells and that light-controlled drug release with real-time monitoring can be achieved.
