Mesoporous silica nanorods toward efficient loading and intracellular delivery of siRNA

• Published in: Journal of nanoparticle research : an interdisciplinary forum for nanoscale science and technology 2018-02, Vol.20 (2), p.1-13, Article 37
• Main Authors: Chen, Lijue, She, Xiaodong, Wang, Tao, Shigdar, Sarah, Duan, Wei, Kong, Lingxue
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Aspect ratio; Cancer; Characterization and Evaluation of Materials; Chemistry and Materials Science; Colorectal carcinoma; Epidermal growth factor; Epidermal growth factor receptors; Gene expression; Inorganic Chemistry; Intracellular; Lasers; Materials Science; Nanoparticles; Nanorods; Nanotechnology; Nucleotide sequence; Optical Devices; Optics; Photonics; Physical Chemistry; Research Paper; Ribonucleic acid; RNA; RNA-mediated interference; Silence; Silica; Silicon dioxide; siRNA; Survivin
• ISSN: 1388-0764; 1572-896X
• DOI: 10.1007/s11051-017-4115-0

The technology of RNA interference (RNAi) that uses small interfering RNA (siRNA) to silence the gene expression with complementary messenger RNA (mRNA) sequence has great potential for the treatment of cancer in which certain genes were usually found overexpressed. However, the carry and delivery of siRNA to the target site in the human body can be challenging for this technology to be used clinically to silence the cancer-related gene expression. In this work, rod shaped mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) were developed as siRNA delivery system for specific intracellular delivery. The rod MSNs with an aspect ratio of 1.5 had a high surface area of 934.28 m 2 /g and achieved a siRNA loading of more than 80 mg/g. With the epidermal growth factor (EGF) grafted on the surface of the MSNs, siRNA can be delivered to the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) overexpressed colorectal cancer cells with high intracellular concentration compared to MSNs without EGF and lead to survivin gene knocking down to less than 30%.