Stimuli-responsive biodegradable silica nanoparticles: From native structure designs to biological applications

Due to their inherent advantages, silica nanoparticles (SiNPs) have greatly potential applications as bioactive materials in biosensors/biomedicine. However, the long-term and nonspecific accumulation in healthy tissues may give rise to toxicity, thereby impeding their widespread clinical application. Hence, it is imperative and noteworthy to develop biodegradable and clearable SiNPs for biomedical purposes. Recently, the design of multi-stimuli responsive SiNPs to improve degradation efficiency under specific pathological conditions has increased their clinical trial potential as theranostic nanoplatform. This review comprehensively summaries the rational design and recent progress of biodegradable SiNPs under various internal and external stimuli for rapid in vivo degradation and clearance. In addition, the factors that affect the biodegradation of SiNPs are also discussed. We believe that this systematic review will offer profound stimulus and timely guide for further research in the field of SiNP-based nanosensors/nanomedicine.

Superparamagnetic Nanocrystals Clustered Using Poly(ethylene glycol)-Crosslinked Amphiphilic Copolymers for the Diagnosis of Liver Cancer

Superparamagnetic iron oxide (SPIO) nanocrystals have been extensively studied as theranostic nanoparticles to increase transverse (T2) relaxivity and enhance contrast in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). To improve the blood circulation time and enhance the diagnostic sensitivity of MRI contrast agents, we developed an amphiphilic copolymer, PCPZL, to effectively encapsulate SPIO nanocrystals. PCPZL was synthesized by crosslinking a polyethylene glycol (PEG)-based homobifunctional linker with a hydrophobic star-like poly(ε-benzyloxycarbonyl-L-lysine) segment. Consequently, it could self-assemble into shell-crosslinked micelles with enhanced colloidal stability in bloodstream circulation. Notably, PCPZL could effectively load SPIO nanocrystals with a high loading capacity of 66.0 ± 0.9%, forming SPIO nanoclusters with a diameter of approximately 100 nm, a high cluster density, and an impressive T2 relaxivity value 5.5 times higher than that of Resovist®. In vivo MRI measurements highlighted the rapid accumulation and contrast effects of SPIO-loaded PCPZL micelles in the livers of both healthy mice and nude mice with an orthotopic hepatocellular carcinoma tumor model. Moreover, the magnetic micelles remarkably enhanced the relative MRI signal difference between the tumor and normal liver tissues. Overall, our findings demonstrate that PCPZL significantly improves the stability and magnetic properties of SPIO nanocrystals, making SPIO-loaded PCPZL micelles promising MRI contrast agents for diagnosing liver diseases and cancers.

Designing Smart Iron Oxide Nanoparticles for MR Imaging of Tumors

Iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) possess unique magnetism and good biocompatibility, and they have been widely applied as contrast agents (CAs) for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Traditional CAs typically show a fixed enhanced signal, thus exhibiting the limitations of low sensitivity and a lack of specificity. Nowadays, the progress of stimulus-responsive IONPs allows alteration of the relaxation signal in response to internal stimuli of the tumor, or external stimuli, thus providing an opportunity to overcome those limitations. This review summarizes the current status of smart IONPs as tumor imaging MRI CAs that exhibit responsiveness to endogenous stimuli, such as pH, hypoxia, glutathione, and enzymes, or exogenous stimuli, such as magnets, light, and so on. We discuss the challenges and future opportunities for IONPs as MRI CAs and comprehensively illustrate the applications of these stimuli-responsive IONPs. This review will help provide guidance for designing IONPs as MRI CAs and further promote the reasonable design of magnetic nanoparticles and achieve early and accurate tumor detection.

Smart Polymeric Micelles for Anticancer Hydrophobic Drugs

Cancer has become one of the deadliest diseases in our society. Surgery accompanied by subsequent chemotherapy is the treatment most used to prolong or save the patient's life. Still, it carries secondary risks such as infections and thrombosis and causes cytotoxic effects in healthy tissues. Using nanocarriers such as smart polymer micelles is a promising alternative to avoid or minimize these problems. These nanostructured systems will be able to encapsulate hydrophilic and hydrophobic drugs through modified copolymers with various functional groups such as carboxyls, amines, hydroxyls, etc. The release of the drug occurs due to the structural degradation of these copolymers when they are subjected to endogenous (pH, redox reactions, and enzymatic activity) and exogenous (temperature, ultrasound, light, magnetic and electric field) stimuli. We did a systematic review of the efficacy of smart polymeric micelles as nanocarriers for anticancer drugs (doxorubicin, paclitaxel, docetaxel, lapatinib, cisplatin, adriamycin, and curcumin). For this reason, we evaluate the influence of the synthesis methods and the physicochemical properties of these systems that subsequently allow an effective encapsulation and release of the drug. On the other hand, we demonstrate how computational chemistry will enable us to guide and optimize the design of these micelles to carry out better experimental work.

Biological Applications of Silica-Based Nanoparticles

Silica nanoparticles have been widely explored in biomedical applications, mainly related to drug delivery and cancer treatment. These nanoparticles have excellent properties, high biocompatibility, chemical and thermal stability, and ease of functionalization. Moreover, silica is used to coat magnetic nanoparticles protecting against acid leaching and aggregation as well as increasing cytocompatibility. This review reports the recent advances of silica-based magnetic nanoparticles focusing on drug delivery, drug target systems, and their use in magnetohyperthermia and magnetic resonance imaging. Notwithstanding, the application in other biomedical fields is also reported and discussed. Finally, this work provides an overview of the challenges and perspectives related to the use of silica-based magnetic nanoparticles in the biomedical field.

Continuous preparation of a nontoxic magnetic fluid as a dual-mode contrast agent for MRI

Ultrasmall nanoparticle contrast agents provide dual-mode MRI. However, the application of ultrasmall nanoparticle contrast agents is limited by low manufacturing outputs and cumbersome preparation processes. Herein, we report a novel continuous-flow coprecipitation method for the preparation of the Fe₃O₄ nanoparticles magnetic fluid (CFCPFe) coated with ultrasmall cysteine-terminated polymethacrylic acid (Cys-PMAA). The preparation process is more coherent, simpler, and less expensive. Compared with magnetic fluids prepared by the conventional method (Cys-PMAA@Fe₃O₄), CFCPFe has smaller particle sizes (3.27 ± 0.93 nm). Moreover, CFCPFe demonstrates excellent stability for >180 days with different pH values (pH = 2-12) and salt concentrations (up to 2 mol/L). In addition, HEK293T cytotoxicity tests, hemolysis tests, and H&E tissue sections show excellent in vitro and in vivo biocompatibility. In vitro magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at 1.5 T shows that the r₂ value (50.51 mM^-1·s^-1) of CFCPFe is slightly lower than that of Combidex (r₂ = 65 mM^-1·s^-1) and that the r₁ value (9.54 mM^-1·s^-1) is 2.7 times higher than that of Gd-DTPA (r₁ = 3.5 mM^-1·s^-1). Finally, in vivo imaging shows that CFCPFe reaches the tumor region of the mouse liver cancer model, and a small tumor can be observed in dual-mode imaging. This work offers an effective method for the preparation of a low-cost, stable, and biocompatible ultrasmall contrast agent exhibiting a strong magnetic-imaging effect for dual-mode imaging.

Redox-triggered aggregation of ESIONPs with switchable T1 to T2 contrast effect for T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agents (CAs) have drawn increasing attention in cancer diagnosis. However, since the signals they generate are always "on" and may bring interfering background signals to the region of interest, their selectivity and sensitivity need further improvement. Herein, extremely small iron oxide nanoparticles (ESIONPs) conjugated through a disulfide bond with polyethylene glycol (PEG) that is terminally modified with folic acid (FA), namely ESIONPs-s-s-PEG-FA, were designed and synthesized to target tumor tissues and selectively activate the T2 MRI contrast effect in the reducing environment of tumor cells. Due to the breakage of disulfide bonds by the high glutathione (GSH) concentration in tumor cells, the hydrophilic PEG chains detached from the surface of ESIONPs, which led to the aggregation of ESIONPs and the activation of the T2 contrast effect. In vitro results showed that ESIONPs-s-s-PEG-FA could effectively target tumors to assemble in the reductive environment and switch from a T1 contrast agent (CA) to a T2 one. Furthermore, MRI in tumor-bearing mice also indicated the obvious targeting capacity and the "turn on" of the T2 contrast effect. In addition, the results of the biosafety assay suggest that the tumor-targeted T1/T2 switchable CA is equipped with favorable biocompatibility for cancer diagnosis.