Core-shell designs of photoluminescent nanodiamonds with porous silica coatings for bioimaging and drug delivery II: application

• Published in: Nanoscale 2013-05, Vol.5 (9), p.3713-3722
• Main Authors: Prabhakar, Neeraj, Näreoja, Tuomas, von Haartman, Eva, Karaman, Didem Şen, Jiang, Hua, Koho, Sami, Dolenko, Tatiana A, Hänninen, Pekka E, Vlasov, Denis I, Ralchenko, Victor G, Hosomi, Satoru, Vlasov, Igor I, Sahlgren, Cecilia, Rosenholm, Jessica M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbocyanines - chemistry; Carbocyanines - pharmacology; Cell Survival - drug effects; Coatings; Drug Carriers - chemistry; Drug delivery systems; Fluorescent Dyes - chemistry; Fluorescent Dyes - pharmacology; HeLa Cells; Humans; Imaging; Microscopy, Confocal; Nanocomposites; Nanodiamonds - chemistry; Nanomaterials; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Nanoparticles - toxicity; Nanostructure; Organophosphates - toxicity; Oxazoles - toxicity; Particle Size; Photoluminescence; Polyethylene Glycols - chemistry; Polyethyleneimine - analogs & derivatives; Polyethyleneimine - chemistry; Porosity; Silicon dioxide; Silicon Dioxide - chemistry
• ISSN: 2040-3364; 2040-3372
• DOI: 10.1039/c3nr33926b

Recent advances within materials science and its interdisciplinary applications in biomedicine have emphasized the potential of using a single multifunctional composite material for concurrent drug delivery and biomedical imaging. Here we present a novel composite material consisting of a photoluminescent nanodiamond (ND) core with a porous silica (SiO2) shell. This novel multifunctional probe serves as an alternative nanomaterial to address the existing problems with delivery and subsequent tracing of the particles. Whereas the unique optical properties of ND allows for long-term live cell imaging and tracking of cellular processes, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have proven to be efficient drug carriers. The advantages of both ND and MSNs were hereby integrated in the new composite material, ND@MSN. The optical properties provided by the ND core rendered the nanocomposite suitable for microscopy imaging in fluorescence and reflectance mode, as well as super-resolution microscopy as a STED label; whereas the porous silica coating provided efficient intracellular delivery capacity, especially in surface-functionalized form. This study serves as a demonstration how this novel nanomaterial can be exploited for both bioimaging and drug delivery for future theranostic applications.