Enhanced therapeutic effect of chemotherapy with magnetic mesoporous silica nanoparticle-mediated synergistic...

This research combined chemotherapy and magnetic hyperthermia therapy in a nano-drug delivery system based on mesoporous silica. The material exhibited dual imaging ability by adding Eu³⁺ ions to the silica framework with an iron oxide core, including IVIS and T₂ MRI. By further grafting temperature-sensitive polymers acting as gatekeepers, the chemo drug camptothecin (CPT) was caged inside the pore until the temperature increased to 42 °C due to the magnetic hyperthermia effect. Moreover, tumor cells overexpress the folic acid (FA) receptor due to the need for FA molecules during their growth. It is promising that by grafting FA onto nanoparticles, tumor cells take up more material, which increases the specificity of the nanoparticles. MMSN-Eu-PEGMA-FA@CPT was successfully taken up by A549 cells, as observed with confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM), and exhibited great inhibition of cancer cell A549 growth. At a concentration of 25 µg mL^-1 under AMF, the cell viability of A549 cells was 56.2%. This is due to the synergistic effect of chemotherapy and hyperthermia therapy.