Gelatin-poly (ethylene glycol) methyl ether-functionalized porous Nanosilica for efficient doxorubicin delivery

ORIGINAL PAPER

Gelatin-poly (ethylene glycol) methyl ether-functionalized porous

Nanosilica for efficient doxorubicin delivery

Uyen Vy Vo1,2,3 & Cuu Khoa Nguyen1,2 & Van Cuong Nguyen3 & Tuong Vi Tran1,2 & Bao Yen To Thi2,4 & Dai Hai Nguyen1,2

Received: 14 June 2018 /Accepted: 13 November 2018

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Abstract

Porous nanosilica (PNS) has been receiving wider attention in the fabrication of nanocarriers for drug delivery. However,

unmodified PNS nanoparticles have shown an initial rapid release of encapsulated drugs, which may limit their potential

applications in the clinical setting. In this report, in order to improve the efficiency of drug delivery, PNS nanoparticles were

first synthesized and then surface conjugated with gelatin-poly (ethylene glycol) methyl ether (GEL-mPEG) to form PNS-GEL￾mPEG nanocarriers for doxorubicin (DOX) delivery. The co-polymer structure and morphology of the obtained nanocarriers

were analyzed using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis

(TGA), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The loading capacity, encapsulation

efficiency and DOX release behavior of DOX@PNS-GEL-mPEG nanocarriers were also evaluated. Results showed that the

conjugated PNS nanocarriers were spherical shape with an average diameter of 69.60 ± 3.27 nm, as compared to 58.93 ± 2.42 nm

of PNS nanocarriers. Also, the PNS-GEL-mPEG nanoparticles showed their ability to effectively encapsulate DOX. In detail,

DOX was significantly encapsulated into PNS-GEL-mPEG nanocarriers to form DOX@PNS-GEL-mPEG nanocarriers with

high loading efficiency of 85.88 ± 0.15%. Moreover, the synthesized DOX@PNS-GEL-mPEG nanoparticles exhibited a sus￾tainable release of DOX up to 96 h, without a burst release, as compared with less than 2 h from unconjugated PNS nanocarriers,

and exhibited a pH-dependent drug release behavior of DOX in acidic media. These results indicated that DOX@PNS-GEL￾mPEG nanocarriers have high potential applications for efficient DOX loading and release in cancer therapy.

Keywords Porous nanosilica . Gelatin . Polyethylene glycol . Drug delivery system . Cancer therapy

Introduction

Porous nanosilica (PNS) has been attracting outstanding can￾didate for drug delivery applications due to its enormous ad￾vantages such as high surface area, large pore volume, high

chemical and thermal stability, and excellent biocompatibility

and biodegradability [1–6]. PNS has a porous structure, which

allows the high encapsulation efficiency of anticancer drugs

and then protects them from enzymatic degradation [7–10].

Despite the significant loading capacity of PNS nanocarriers,

encapsulated drugs tend to release in a burst and be poorly

dispersible, resulting in the removal of drugs that will actually

reach tumors. In order to overcome this limitation, surface

modification of PNS nanocarriers with biopolymers is one

of the most promising strategies, both interfacial properties

of the modified nanocarriers can be engineered and mechan￾ical and thermal properties of the polymers can be improved at

the same time [11, 12].

* Uyen Vy Vo

[email protected]; [email protected]

* Dai Hai Nguyen

[email protected]

1 Graduate University of Science and Technology, Vietnam Academy

of Science and Technology, 18 Hoang Quoc Viet, Cau Giay,

Hanoi 100000, Vietnam

2 Institute of Applied Materials Science, Vietnam Academy of Science

and Technology, 01 TL29, District12, Ho Chi Minh City 700000,

Vietnam

3 Industrial University of Ho Chi Minh City, 12 Nguyen Van Bao, Go

Vap, Ho Chi Minh City 70000, Vietnam

4 Mien Tay Construction University, 20B Pho Co Dieu, Ward 3, Vinh

Long City 91000, Vietnam

Journal of Polymer Research (2019) 26: 6

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10965-018-1654-8

/Published online: 6 December 2018

Springer Nature B.V. 2018