Smart Nanoparticles for Protein Controlled Delivery

Joana Filipa Pereira de Brito

Key information

Authors:

Joana Filipa Pereira de Brito (Joana Filipa Pereira de Brito)

Supervisors:

Carlos Miguel Calisto Baleizão (Carlos Miguel Calisto Baleizão); José Paulo Sequeira Farinha (José Paulo Sequeira Farinha)

Published in

December 6, 2021

Abstract

Over the last years, increase interest have been paid to drug delivery systems, given a special attention to mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) due to their unique characteristics: high surface area and pore volume, tunable pore size, biocompatibility and easy surface modification. Proteins are potent biotherapeutics that can be used in the treatment of several human diseases, as for example cancer and diabetes. They have several advantages over conventional drugs, such as higher specificity, higher activity, and lower toxicity. However, their low stability and large size pledge their therapeutic effects, and their delivery into the target place and in a controlled manner is still a challenge. In this study, with 71 nm diameter MSNs and 6 nm pores were synthesised for the controlled delivery of lysozyme (protein), through the different functionalization of the nanoparticles (NPs). For this purpose, MSNs were functionalized with two different molecules N-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl-N,N,N- trimethylammonium chloride (CAT) and trimethoxy(propyl)silane (PTES), and the remained were not functionalized (MSN-BARE). It was confirmed that, the release kinetics depends on the functionalization of the particles, being faster for MSN-CAT than for MSN-PTES and MSN-BARE. The release of lysozyme from dense silica nanoparticles (Stöber) was also performed, confirming that the release from MSNs corresponds namely to molecules incorporated in the pores, since the initial kinetics of lysozyme is much higher in Stöber NPs. These results suggest that through different funcionalizations of this novel platform, it is possible to control the release kinetics of the cargo proteins.