Wang Fangfang, Duan Huican, Zhang Ruifang, Guo Haiyan, Lin Han, Chen Yu
Department of Ultrasound, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University, Zhengzhou, 450052, P. R. China.
Nanoscale. 2020 Sep 14;12(34):17931-17946. doi: 10.1039/d0nr05214k. Epub 2020 Aug 26.
Silicene, as an emerging two-dimensional (2D) silicon allotrope, mainly serves in the field of electronics and energy devices but multidisciplinary studies on 2D silicene have been rarely carried out, especially the potential translational biomedical practice. In this study, we explore a high-performance photonic drug-delivery nanoplatform based on 2D ultrathin silicene nanosheets (DOX@silicene-BSA NSs) regarding effective chemotherapeutic drug loading (capacity amount of w/w%: 137.0%) while highlighting the potentiated cytosolic drug-delivery efficiency (spatiotemporally pH-/NIR-triggered drug-release) and NIR-II-activated photonic hyperthermia (η = 19.7%) performance, thus, enabling the potential synergistic chemotherapeutic and phototherapeutic outcomes. The cellular endocytotic mechanism of these nanosheets in cancer cells has been comprehensively studied and provides an essential understanding of the nano-bio interactions of silicene-based nanosheets or other emerging 2D nanostructures. Prominent suppression of tumor growth was achieved by synergistic chemotherapy and photonic hyperthermia with negligible adverse effects and expected degradability, thus addressing the several fundamental barriers of oncology-related nanotherapies. This work highlights silicene, which integrates the merits of high specific surface area endowed with 2D topology, intrinsic responsiveness toward physical/chemical stimuli, and biomedical necessity of biodegradation and biosafety, as a promising next-generation omnipotent alternative to subrogate traditional silicon-based biomaterials and non-biocompatible nanoagents in clinical translation nanomedicine.
硅烯作为一种新兴的二维（2D）硅同素异形体，主要应用于电子和能源设备领域，但针对二维硅烯的多学科研究却很少开展，尤其是潜在的转化性生物医学应用。在本研究中，我们探索了一种基于二维超薄硅烯纳米片的高性能光子药物递送纳米平台（DOX@硅烯 - BSA纳米片），其具有高效的化疗药物负载能力（重量/重量百分比容量：137.0%），同时突出了增强的胞质药物递送效率（时空pH/近红外触发药物释放）和近红外二区激活的光子热疗（η = 19.7%）性能，从而实现潜在的协同化疗和光疗效果。对这些纳米片在癌细胞中的细胞内吞机制进行了全面研究，为基于硅烯的纳米片或其他新兴二维纳米结构的纳米 - 生物相互作用提供了重要理解。通过协同化疗和光子热疗实现了对肿瘤生长的显著抑制，且副作用可忽略不计并具有预期的可降解性，从而解决了肿瘤相关纳米疗法的几个基本障碍。这项工作突出了硅烯，它兼具二维拓扑结构赋予的高比表面积优点、对物理/化学刺激的固有响应性以及生物降解和生物安全性的生物医学必要性，是临床转化纳米医学中替代传统硅基生物材料和非生物相容性纳米剂的有前途的下一代全能替代品。
