American Chemical Society, Biomacromolecules, 4(16), p. 1131-1145, 2015
DOI: 10.1021/bm501786t
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We chemically integrated mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) and macroporous bowl-like polylactic acid (pBPLA) matrix, for non-invasive electrostatic loading and long-term controlled doxorubicin (DOX) release, to prepare a hierarchical porous bowl-like pBPLA@MSNs-COOH composite with a non-spherical and hierarchical porous structure. Strong electrostatic interaction with DOX rendered excellent encapsulation efficiency (up to 90.14 %) to the composite. DOX release showed pH-dominated drug release kinetics; thus, maintaining a weak acidic pH (e.g., 5.0) triggered sustained release, suggesting the composite's great potential for long-term therapeutic approaches. In-vitro cell viability assays further confirmed that the composite was biocompatible and that the loaded drugs were pharmacologically active, exhibiting dosage-dependent cytotoxicity. Additionally, a wound-healing assay revealed the composite's intrinsic ability to inhibit cell migration. Moreover, pH- and time- dependent leaching the integrated MSNs due to pBPLA matrix degradation allow us to infer that the leached (and drug loaded) MSNs may be engulfed by cancer cells contributing to a second wave of DOX-mediated cytotoxicity following pH-triggered DOX release.