title: Capacity of mesoporous bioactive glass nanoparticles to deliver therapeutic molecules.
abstract: Inorganic bioactive nanomaterials are attractive for hard tissue regeneration, including nanocomponents for bone replacement composites and nanovehicles for delivering therapeutics. Bioactive glass nanoparticles (BGn) have recently gained potential usefulness as bone and tooth regeneratives. Here we demonstrate the capacity of the BGn with mesopores to load and deliver therapeutic molecules (drugs and particularly genes). Spherical BGn with sizes of 80-90 nm were produced to obtain 3-5 nm sized mesopores through a sono-reacted sol-gel process. A simulated body fluid test of the mesoporous BGn confirmed their excellent apatite forming ability and the cellular toxicity study demonstrated their good cell viability up to 100 μg ml(-1). Small molecules like chemical drug (Na-ampicillin) and gene (small interfering RNA; siRNA) were introduced as model drugs considering the mesopore size of the nanoparticles. Moreover, amine-functionalization allowed switchable surface charge property of the BGn (from -20-30 mV to +20-30 mV). Loading of ampicillin or siRNA saturated within a few hours (~2 h) and reflected the mesopore structure. While the ampicillin released relatively rapidly (~12 h), the siRNA continued to release up to 3 days with almost zero-order kinetics. The siRNA-nanoparticles were easily taken up by the cells, with a transfection efficiency as high as ~80%. The silencing effect of siRNA delivered from the BGn, as examined by using bcl-2 model gene, showed dramatic down-regulation (~15% of control), suggesting the potential use of BGn as a new class of nanovehicles for genes. This, in conjunction with other attractive properties, including size- and mesopore-related high surface area and pore volume, tunable surface chemistry, apatite-forming ability, good cell viability and the possible ion-related stimulatory effects, will potentiate the usefulness of the BGn in hard tissue regeneration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanobiomedical Science and WCU Research Center, Dankook University, South Korea.
authors.forename: Ahmed
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: El-Fiqi
authors.forename: Tae-Hyun
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Meeju
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Mohamed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Eltohamy
authors.forename: Jong-Eun
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Won
authors.forename: Eun-Jung
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Hae-Won
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Kim
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002470:Cell Survival / Q000187:drug effects; D002478:Cells, Cultured; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry; D005898:Glass / Q000737:chemistry*; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000633:toxicity; D010316:Particle Size; D016062:Porosity; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering / Q000494:pharmacology; D051381:Rats
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers; D034741:RNA, Small Interfering