Au-Mesoporous silica nanoparticles gated with disulfide-linked oligo(ethylene glycol) chains for tunable cargo delivery mediated by an integrated enzymatic control unit

J Mater Chem B. 2017 Sep 7;5(33):6734-6739. doi: 10.1039/c7tb02045g. Epub 2017 Aug 14.

Abstract

We report a delivery system based on Au-mesoporous silica (MS) nanoparticles functionalized with acetylcholinesterase on the Au face as a control unit and with disulfide-containing oligo(ethylene glycol) chains on the MS face as caps. The control unit handles the chemical information in the environment (the presence of acetylthiocholine or enzyme inhibitors) that results in a tuned cargo delivery from the nanocarrier. The nanodevice displayed an enhanced cargo delivery in cancer cells (safranin O and doxorubicin) in the presence of acetylthiocholine.