Super-Assembled Periodic Mesoporous Organosilica Frameworks for Real-Time Hypoxia-Triggered Drug Release and Monitoring

• Published in: ACS applied materials & interfaces 2021-10, Vol.13 (42), p.50246-50257
• Main Authors: Liu, Yingnan, Xie, Lei, Gao, Meng, Zhang, Runhao, Gao, Jingchen, Sun, Jiangdong, Chai, Qingdong, Wu, Tong, Liang, Kang, Chen, Pu, Wan, Qi, Kong, Biao
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cell Line, Tumor; Drug Carriers - chemical synthesis; Drug Carriers - chemistry; Drug Carriers - pharmacology; Drug Liberation; Functional Nanostructured Materials (including low-D carbon); Humans; Hypoxia - drug therapy; Hypoxia - metabolism; Materials Testing; Molecular Structure; Organosilicon Compounds - chemical synthesis; Organosilicon Compounds - chemistry; Organosilicon Compounds - pharmacology; Particle Size; Porosity; Surface Properties; Time Factors
• ISSN: 1944-8244; 1944-8252
• DOI: 10.1021/acsami.1c15067

Hypoxia, induced by inadequate oxygen supply, is a key indication of various major illnesses, which necessitates the need to develop new nanoprobes capable of sensing hypoxia environments for the targeted system monitoring and drug delivery. Herein, we report a hypoxia-responsive, periodic mesoporous organosilica (PMO) nanocarrier for repairing hypoxia damage. β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) capped azobenzene functionalization on the PMO surface could be effectively cleaved by azoreductase under a hypoxia environment. Moreover, the nanosystem is equipped with fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET) pair (tetrastyrene derivative (TPE) covalently attached to the PMO framework as the donor and Rhodamine B (RhB) in the mesopores as the receptor) for intracellular visualization and tracking of drug release in real-time. The design of intelligent nanocarriers capable of simultaneous reporting and treating of hypoxia conditions highlights a great potential in the biomedical domain.