Ultrastable, redispersible, small, and highly organomodified mesoporous silica nanotherapeutics

Practical biomedical application of mesoporous silica nanoparticles is limited by poor particle dispersity and stability due to serious irreversible aggregation in biological media. To solve this problem, hydrothermally treated mesoporous silica nanoparticles of small size with dual-organosilane (hydrophilic and hydrophobic silane) surface modification have been synthesized. These highly organomodified mesoporous silica nanoparticles were characterized by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, N ₂ adsorption-desorption, dynamic light scattering, zeta potential, and solid-state ²⁹Si NMR, and they prove to be very stable in simulated body fluid at physiological temperature. Additionally, they can be dried to a powdered solid and easily redispersed in biological media, maintaining their small size for a period of at least 15 days. Furthermore, this preparation method can be expanded to synthesize redispersible fluorescent and magnetic mesoporous silica nanoparticles. The highly stable and redispersible mesoporous silica NPs show minimal toxicity during in vitro cellular assays. Most importantly, two types of doxorubicin, water-soluble doxorubicin and poorly water-soluble doxorubicin, can be loaded into these highly stable mesoporous silica nanoparticles, and these drug-loaded nanoparticles can also be well-redispersed in aqueous solution. Enhanced cytotoxicity to cervical cancer (HeLa) cells was found upon treatment with water-soluble doxorubicin-loaded nanoparticles compared to free water-soluble doxorubicin. These results suggest that highly stable, redispersible, and small mesoporous silica nanoparticles are promising agents for in vivo biomedical applications.