Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) are promising drug carriers for use in cancer treatment owing to their excellent biocompatibility and drug-loading capacity. However, MSN's incomplete drug release and toxic bioaccumulation phenomena limit their clinical application. Recently, researchers have presented redox responsive mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles containing disulfide (S-S) bridges (ss-MONs). These nanoparticles retained their ability to undergo structural degradation and increased their local release activity when exposed to reducing agents. Disulfide-based mesoporous organosilica nanoparticles offer researchers a better option for loading chemotherapeutic drugs due to their effective biodegradability through the reduction of glutathione. Although the potential of ss-MONs in cancer theranostics has been studied, few researchers have systematically compared ss-MONs with MSNs with regard to endocytosis, drug release, cytotoxicity, and therapeutic effect. In this work, ss-MONs and MSNs with equal morphology and size were designed and used to payload doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) for liver cancer chemotherapy. The ss-MONs showed considerable degradability in the presence of glutathione and performed comparably to MSNs on biocompatibility measures, including cytotoxicity and endocytosis, as well as in drug-loading capacity. Notably, DOX-loaded ss-MONs exhibited higher intracellular drug release in cancer cells and better anticancer effects in comparison with DOX-loaded MSNs. Hence, the ss-MONs may be more desirable carriers for a highly efficient and safe treatment of cancer.
Keywords: biodegradability; cancer therapy; drug release; mesoporous organic silica.
© 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S.