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Temperature responsive porous silicon nanoparticles for cancer therapy – spatiotemporal triggering through infrared and radiofrequency electromagnetic heating

Konstantin Tamarov,Wujun Xu, Liubov Osminkina, Sergey Zinovyev, Pasi Soininen, Andrey Kudryavtsev, Maxim Gongalsky, Azha Gaydarova, Ale Närvänen, Victor Timoshenko and Vesa-Pekka Lehto
Published:
2016
Research summary:

One critical functionality of the carrier system utilized in   targeted drug delivery is its ability to trigger the release of the   therapeutic cargo once the carrier has reached its target. External   triggering is an alluring approach as it can be applied in a precise  spatiotemporalmanner. In the present study, we achieved external triggering through the porous silicon (PSi) nanoparticles (NPs) by providing a pulse of infrared or radiofrequency radiation. The NPs were grafted with a temperature responsive polymer whose critical temperature was tailored to be slightly  above 37°C. The polymer coating improved the biocompatibility of the NPs  significantly in comparison with their uncoated counterparts. Radiation induced a rapid temperature rise, which resulted in the collapse of the polymer chains facilitating the cargo release. Both infrared and radiofrequency radiation were able to efficiently trigger the release of the encapsulated drug in vitro and induce significant cell death in comparison to the control groups. Radiofrequency radiation was found to be more efficient in vitro, and the treatment efficacy was verified in vivo in a lung carcinoma (3LL) mice model. After a single intratumoral administration of the carrier system combined with radiofrequency radiation, there was clear suppression of the growth of the carcinoma and a prolongation of the survival time of the animals. TOC image: The temperature responsive (TR) polymer grafted on the surface of porous silicon nanoparticles (PSi NPs) changes its conformation in response to the heating induced by infrared or radiofrequency radiation. The conformation change allows the loaded doxorubicin to escape from the pores,achieving controlled drug release from TR PSi NPs, which displayed efficacy against malignant cells both in vitro and in vivo.

Source:
K. Tamarov et al. / Journal of Controlled Release 241 (2016) 220–228
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