Dual-responsive targeted hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles for cancer photodynamic therapy and chemotherapy

Abstract Surface modification of hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles (HMSNs) with unique advantages are highly promising for drug delivery and have emerged for effective cancer treatment. In this study, functionalized nanoparticles for targeting and dual-responsive release of loaded doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX·HCL) and indocyanine green (ICG) (labeled as ID@HCH). In addition, chitosan (CS) was conjugated onto the HMSNs as capping agents and then dialdehyde hyaluronic acid (HDA) was modified to endow the ability to target the CD44 receptor. The characterizations demonstrated that nanocarriers have been successfully constructed with excellent drug loading capacity (DL) and drug entrapment efficiency (EE). The in vitro DOX control release displayed pH/enzyme-response properties owing to the pH-dependent swelling effect of chitosan and the HDA degraded by hyaluronidases (HAase). Moreover, the results of in vitro cell experiments proved that the ID@HCH could inhibit the cancer cells viability via accurately targeting HepG2 cells and chemotherapy combined with photodynamic therapy. This study demonstrated that ID@HCH is a new promising dual-responsive drug delivery system for chemotherapy and photodynamic therapy. Graphical Abstract