Direct surface modification of mesoporous silica nanoparticles by DBD plasma as a green approach to prepare dual-responsive drug delivery system

This paper deals with uniformly surface modification of mesoporous silica nanoparticles by applying dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) plasma as an energy-efficient and green approach. First, the mesoporous silica nanoparticles were synthesized from rice husk (RMSN-D) as an economic and biocompatible natural source.

Highlights

Mesoporous silica nanoparticle was successfully synthesized from rice husk as agricultural waste.

The mesoporous silica nanoparticle’s surface was modified by dielectric barrier discharge plasma as a green approach in uniform modification.

The surface modification was performed with two methods: i) direct mode, ii) direct hybrid mode.

The polymeric pH and temperature-responsive shell were grafted on the modified mesoporous silica nanoparticle surface by free radical polymerization technique.

The nanocarrier, which was modified by dielectric barrier discharge plasma, especially by the direct hybrid mode, had higher toxicity and apoptosis-inducing on the MCF-7 cell line compared with a free anti-cancer drug.

The surface modification stage by DBD plasma was performed in two methods: i) Direct mode and ii) Direct hybrid mode. The structure and physicochemical properties of the nanoparticles were characterized by XRD, FT-IR, Fe-SEM/EDS, TEM, EDS, BET, and HNMR techniques. Doxorubicin (Dox) was exploited as a model drug, and in-vitro Dox release was investigated. The biocompatibility of nanocarriers was accepted by MTT test on HFF-2 cell line as a normal modal cell.

For the advanced cellular study, apoptosis of the MCF-7 cell line treated with Dox-loaded nanocarriers was investigated by flow cytometric analysis and morphological study by fluorescent microscopy. The results showed that Dox-loaded RMSN-D modified by direct hybrid mode induced a high level of apoptosis in the MCF-7 cells.

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Article information: Sahar Porrang, Nader Rahemi, Soodabeh Davaran, Majid Mahdavi, Belal Hassanzadeh, Amin Mohammad Gholipour. Direct surface modification of mesoporous silica nanoparticles by DBD plasma as a green approach to prepare dual-responsive drug delivery system, Journal of the Taiwan Institute of Chemical Engineers, 2021. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtice.2021.05.024.