Advanced Photonics Center, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, Jiangsu, China.
Advanced Photonics Center, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, Jiangsu, China.
Biosens Bioelectron. 2014 Jul 15;57:10-5. doi: 10.1016/j.bios.2014.01.042. Epub 2014 Feb 2.
A type of pH-controllable drug carrier is demonstrated based on mesoporous silica nanoparticles and chitosan/poly (methacrylic acid), which can simultaneously serve as the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) traceable drug carriers for targeting cancer cells. The pH-sensitive releasing characteristics can be achieved by coating the nanoparticles with a layer of chitosan/poly (methacrylic acid) (CS-PMAA), while strong SERS signals can be obtained from the SERS reporter tagged Ag nanoparticles in the core. Our experimental results show that doxorubicin (DOX) was effectively encapsulated into the nanocarriers and can be released in response to the ambient pH value. Specifically, an increased amount of DOX release was observed at lower pH value. In addition, the composite nanoparticles were conjugated with transferrin (Tf) to target transferrin receptor (TfR)-overexpressed cancer cells. The targeting ability as well as the intracellular location of the drug carrier was investigated through SERS mapping while the distribution of DOX was monitored by fluorescence images. The results show that the demonstrated drug carrier can simultaneously fulfill the functionalities of pH-responsive drug release, SERS-traceable characteristics and cancer cells targeting, which has a unique potential for the pH-controllable drug delivery nanosystems.
一种基于介孔硅纳米粒子和壳聚糖/聚（甲基丙烯酸）的 pH 可控药物载体被证明可以同时作为靶向癌细胞的表面增强拉曼散射（SERS）可追踪药物载体。通过在纳米粒子表面包覆一层壳聚糖/聚（甲基丙烯酸）（CS-PMAA）可以实现 pH 敏感释放特性，而核中的 SERS 报告标记的 Ag 纳米粒子可以获得强 SERS 信号。我们的实验结果表明，阿霉素（DOX）被有效包裹在纳米载体中，并可以响应环境 pH 值进行释放。具体来说，在较低的 pH 值下观察到 DOX 释放量增加。此外，复合纳米粒子与转铁蛋白（Tf）偶联以靶向转铁蛋白受体（TfR）过表达的癌细胞。通过 SERS 图谱研究了药物载体的靶向能力和细胞内位置，同时通过荧光图像监测 DOX 的分布。结果表明，所展示的药物载体可以同时实现 pH 响应药物释放、SERS 追踪特性和癌细胞靶向功能，这为 pH 可控药物输送纳米系统提供了独特的潜力。
