Virus‐Inspired Deformable Mesoporous Nanocomposites for High Efficiency Drug Delivery

Abstract

Mesoporous nanoparticles as a versatile platform for cancer theranostics have been widely used, but their cellular delivery efficiency is still far from satisfactory. Although deformability is emerging as an important parameter influencing cellular uptake enhancement, the facile synthesis of deformable mesoporous nanocomposite with adjustable mechanical property is challenging but meaningful for a deeper understanding of cellular uptake mechanisms and significantly improving cancer therapy. In this work, yolk–shell structured eccentric mesoporous organosilica (YEMO) nanocomposites with adjustable mechanical property are successfully prepared by an organosilane‐assisted anisotropic self‐assembly approach. The feasibility to precisely control the mechanical property of the YEMO by manipulating the structural parameters, the crosslinking degree of mesoporous framework, and the rotation rate of the reaction is demonstrated. The study of the fabrication mechanism and mechanical properties of YEMO are discussed in detail. The Young's modulus (EY) of YEMO can be adjusted from 2.4 to 65 MPa. Thereby, the continuous control of the cellular uptake from ≈15% to ≈80% under the same incubation time is achieved. To further prove the higher efficiency drug delivery of YEMO with soft characteristics, the higher toxicity of the “soft” YEMO loaded with the anticancer drug doxorubicin compared to the “stiff” one is demonstrated.

Physiologically Relevant Mechanics of Biodegradable Polyester Nanoparticles

“…Such assumptions hold true for certain inorganic NPs, such as those composed of metals and oxides . Additionally, systematic studies of silica nanocapsules with different mechanical properties have found a strong dependence of phagocytosis and tumor targeting processes , on nanoparticle stiffness.…”

Degradable mesoporous semimetal antimony nanospheres for near-infrared II multimodal theranostics

“…Mesoporous nanomaterials with large surface areas, tunable pore sizes, and diverse compositions have drawn tremendous interest due to their great potential in various applications, including drug delivery, catalysis, energy conversion and storage, as well as separation technique 1 – 6 . In the past two decades, numerous silica-based mesoporous structures with tunable pore sizes and morphologies were constructed by a modified stöber process 7 – 13 , but the inert properties of silica seriously limited their applications. Therefore, metallic and semimetallic mesoporous frameworks are expected to show superior performance than silica-based mesoporous structures in electronics, catalysis, optics, and biophotonics, owing to the extraordinary electronic properties of metals and semimetals 14 – 17 .…”

Complete pH-Dependent Shape Recovery in Cubical Hydrogel Capsules after Large Osmotic Deformations

“…The soft particles with Young’s modulus less than 1.6 MPa were found to accumulate more in tumor tissues, while most of their stiffer counterparts (Young’s modulus > 13.8 MPa) stayed in the liver . Recently, the more deformable yolk–shell mesoporous organosilicas with lower Young’s modulus of 2.4 MPa were shown to facilitate their uptake by human breast cancer cells …”