title: Near-infrared luminescent CaTiO3:Nd3+nanofibers with tunable and trackable drug release kinetics.
abstract: 750-850 nm (NIR I) and 1000-1400 nm (NIR II) in the near infrared (NIR) spectra are two windows of optical transparency for biological tissues with the latter capable of penetrating tissue deeper. Monitoring drug release from the drug carrier is still a daunting challenge in the field of nanomedicine. To overcome such a challenge, we propose to use porous Nd3+-doped CaTiO3nanofibers, which can be excited by NIR I to emit NIR II light, to carry drugs to test the concept of monitoring drug release from the nanofibers by detecting the NIR II emission intensity. Towards this end, we first used electrospinning to prepare porous Nd3+-doped CaTiO3nanofibers by adding micelle-forming surfactant Pluronic F127, followed by annealing to remove the organic component. After a model drug, ibuprofen, was loaded into the porous nanofibers, the drug release from the nanofibers into the phosphate buffered saline (PBS) solution was monitored by detecting the NIR II emission from the nanofibers. We found that the release of the drug molecules from the nanofibers into the PBS solution triggers the quenching of NIR II emission by the hydroxyl groups in the surrounding media. Consequently, more drug release corresponded to more reduction in the intensity of the NIR II emission, allowing us to monitor the drug release by simply detecting the intensity of NIR II from the nanofibers. In addition, we demonstrated that tuning the amount of micelle-forming surfactant Pluronic F127 enabled us to tune the porosity of the nanofibers and thus the drug release kinetics. This study suggests that Nd3+doped CaTiO3nanostructures can serve as a promising drug delivery platform with the potential to monitor drug release kinetics by detecting the tissue-penetrating NIR emission.
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Xiang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Qiuhong
authors.initials: Q
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Leicester School of Pharmacy, De Montfort University, Leicester, LE1 9BH, UK.
authors.forename: Zeeshan
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ahmad
authors.affiliation: Department of Mechanical Engineering, University College London, London, WC1E 7JE, UK.
authors.forename: Jie
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Huang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Zhaohui
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Wenjian
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Weng
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P. R. China.
authors.forename: Gaorong
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Silicon Materials, School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, P. R. China; Department of Chemistry & Biochemistry, Stephenson Life Sciences Research Center, University of Oklahoma, 101 Stephenson Parkway, Norman, Oklahoma, 73019-5300, USA.
authors.forename: Chuanbin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mao