A preloaded amorphous calcium carbonate/doxorubicin@silica nanoreactor for pH-responsive delivery of an anticancer drug

Biomedical applications of nontoxic amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) nanoparticles have mainly been restricted because of their aqueous instability. To improve their stability in physiological environments while retaining their pH-responsiveness, a novel nanoreactor of ACC–doxorubicin (DOX)@silica...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Zhao, Yang, Luo, Zhong, Li, Menghuan, Qu, Qiuyu, Ma, Xing, Yu, Shu-Hong, Zhao, Yanli
Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: 2015
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/106582
http://hdl.handle.net/10220/25002
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
Description
Summary:Biomedical applications of nontoxic amorphous calcium carbonate (ACC) nanoparticles have mainly been restricted because of their aqueous instability. To improve their stability in physiological environments while retaining their pH-responsiveness, a novel nanoreactor of ACC–doxorubicin (DOX)@silica was developed for drug delivery for use in cancer therapy. As a result of its rationally engineered structure, this nanoreactor maintains a low drug leakage in physiological and lysosomal/endosomal environments, and responds specifically to pH 6.5 to release the drug. This unique ACC–DOX@silica nanoreactor releases DOX precisely in the weakly acidic microenvironment of cancer cells and results in efficient cell death, thus showing its great potential as a desirable chemotherapeutic nanosystem for cancer therapy.