Near-Infrared Light-Triggered Intracellular Delivery of Anticancer Drugs Using Porous Silicon Nanoparticles Conjugated with IR820 Dyes

摘要

A near-infrared (NIR) light-triggered system based on porous silicon nanoparticles (PSiNPs) conjugated with IR820 dyes is developed for controlled release of doxorubicin hydrocloride (DOX, anticancer drug) inside cancer cells and chemo-photothermal combination therapy in vitro. PSiNPs are chosen as nanocarriers to encapsulate IR820 and DOX molecules because of their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and a high loading capacity of effective contents (34.2% ± 6.3%, w/w). Notably, as-prepared DOX/IR820/PSiNPs nanocomposites also have a high release percentage (98.5%) of DOX molecules triggered by NIR light in acidic environments, compared with that (17.9%) without NIR irradiation under neutral conditions. Furthermore, using localized photostimulation with a femtosecond NIR laser of two-photo laser scanning confocal microscope, intracellular release of DOX molecules from DOX/ IR820/PSiNPs nanocomposites can be dynamically observed in situ. Finally, the combination anticancer treatments of PSiNPs-based nano composites are assessed in vitro, which shows a synergistic effect including chemotherapy and photothermal therapy of cancer cells. Therefore, the therapeutic approach based on PSiNPs-based nanocarriers integrated with IR820 and DOX molecules has a great potential on NIR light-stimulated cancer therapy.