Department of Marine Science, School of Marine Sciences, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli 620 024, Tamil Nadu, India.
Center for Nanoscience and Nanotechnology, School of Physics, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirapalli 620 024, Tamil Nadu, India.
Mater Sci Eng C Mater Biol Appl. 2019 Jan 1;94:56-64. doi: 10.1016/j.msec.2018.09.009. Epub 2018 Sep 6.
Drug delivery using synthetic mesoporous nanomaterials, including porous silicon, has been extensively used to ameliorate the constraints currently experienced with conventional chemotherapy. Owing to the amazing potential, the silica based nanomaterials have been used widely. Nevertheless, synthetic nanomaterial involves high cost, lack of scalability, and the use of toxic substances limits its utilization. These issues can be overcome by the use of nature generated nanoscale materials, such as diatoms would serve as a boon for pharmaceutical industries. In this study we investigate the use of a mesoporous, biodegradable nanomaterial obtained from the natural silica found in the diatom species Amphora subtropica (AMPS) for drug delivery applications. AMPS cultures cleaned and chemically treated to obtain Amphora frustules (exoskeleton) (AF), followed by surface functionalization with chitosan (Chi). Results of our experiments demonstrate high drug loading, strong luminescence, biodegradable and biocompatible nature of the doxorubicin tethered diatom. Further, toxicity studies employing immortalized lung cancer cell line (A549) indicates sustained drug delivery and less toxic compared to the free doxorubicin (DOX), suggesting AF could be an excellent substitute for synthetic nanomaterials used in drug delivery applications.
利用合成介孔纳米材料（包括多孔硅）进行药物输送已被广泛用于改善传统化疗目前面临的限制。由于其巨大的潜力，基于硅的纳米材料已被广泛应用。然而，合成纳米材料成本高、缺乏可扩展性，且使用有毒物质限制了其应用。这些问题可以通过使用天然产生的纳米级材料来克服，例如硅藻，这将为制药行业带来福音。在这项研究中，我们研究了使用从硅藻物种（Amphora subtropica）中天然存在的硅获得的介孔可生物降解纳米材料（AMPS）用于药物输送应用。对 AMPS 进行培养、清洁和化学处理，以获得 Amphora 壳（AF），然后用壳聚糖（Chi）进行表面功能化。我们的实验结果表明，与游离阿霉素（DOX）相比，这种与阿霉素结合的硅藻具有高载药量、强发光性、可生物降解和生物相容性。此外，使用永生化肺癌细胞系（A549）进行的毒性研究表明，与游离阿霉素相比，该药物具有持续的药物输送和较低的毒性，这表明 AF 可能是用于药物输送应用的合成纳米材料的极好替代品。
