title: Mechanism of erosion of nanostructured porous silicon drug carriers in neoplastic tissues.
abstract: Nanostructured porous silicon (PSi) is emerging as a promising platform for drug delivery owing to its biocompatibility, degradability and high surface area available for drug loading. The ability to control PSi structure, size and porosity enables programming its in vivo retention, providing tight control over embedded drug release kinetics. In this work, the relationship between the in vitro and in vivo degradation of PSi under (pre)clinically relevant conditions, using breast cancer mouse model, is defined. We show that PSi undergoes enhanced degradation in diseased environment compared with healthy state, owing to the upregulation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) in the tumour vicinity that oxidize the silicon scaffold and catalyse its degradation. We further show that PSi degradation in vitro and in vivo correlates in healthy and diseased states when ROS-free or ROS-containing media are used, respectively. Our work demonstrates that understanding the governing mechanisms associated with specific tissue microenvironment permits predictive material performance.
authors: The Inter-Departmental Program of Biotechnology, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors: Adi
authors: A
authors: Tzur-Balter
authors: Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors: Zohar
authors: Z
authors: Shatsberg
authors: Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA.
authors: Margarita
authors: M
authors: Beckerman
authors: 1] Department of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel [2] Russell Berrie Nanotechnology Institute, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa 32000, Israel.
authors: Ester
authors: E
authors: Segal
authors: 1] Institute for Medical Engineering and Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139, USA [2] Department of Anesthesiology, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston 02115, USA.
authors: Natalie
authors: N
authors: Artzi
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D004337:Drug Carriers / Q000737:chemistry*; D005453:Fluorescence; D006801:Humans; D051379:Mice; D049329:Nanostructures / Q000737:chemistry*; D009369:Neoplasms / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology*; D016062:Porosity; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species / Q000378:metabolism; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D059016:Tumor Microenvironment
chemical_list: D004337:Drug Carriers; D017382:Reactive Oxygen Species; D012825:Silicon