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Tween 20‐Assisted Synthesis of Uniform Mesoporous Silica Nanospheres with Wormhole Porosity for Efficient Intracellular Curcumin Delivery
Author(s) -
Maqbool Qysar,
Chanchal Abhishek,
Srivastava Aasheesh
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
chemistryselect
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.437
H-Index - 34
ISSN - 2365-6549
DOI - 10.1002/slct.201800386
Subject(s) - mesoporous silica , materials science , chemical engineering , mesoporous material , nanoparticle , nanotechnology , biocompatibility , drug delivery , curcumin , pulmonary surfactant , chemistry , organic chemistry , biochemistry , engineering , metallurgy , catalysis
We report a green and straightforward protocol to prepare uniform mesoporous silica nanospheres (MSNs) as well as core/shell‐like spherical particles by utilizing small amounts of Tween 20, a biocompatible and biodegradable surfactant. Due to small amount of surfactant employed in the synthesis, these MSNs can be easily purified and readily dispersed in water. TEM analysis showed presence of wormhole‐like framework‐confined mesoporosity along with high surface area (upto 250 m 2 /g) in these MSNs. Size‐tunability of these nanospheres was achieved by simple variation of the ethanol:water ratio during the synthesis. Powder X‐ray diffraction (XRD) and low angle XRD, respectively, showed amorphous nature and similar pore ordering for all the samples prepared using this protocol. These MSNs showed effective, post‐synthetic uptake of model hydrophobic drug curcumin to yield stable aqueous dispersions. High biocompatibility and ready internalization by mammalian cells mainly through clathrin‐independent, caveolae‐ and lipid raft‐mediated endocytosis was observed for these MSNs. Efficient intracellular delivery of curcumin using these MSNs was achieved in MDA‐MB‐231 (Breast cancer) cells. Thus, this work offers facile protocol for synthesis of uniform and biocompatible MSNs with promising drug delivery capabilities.