The intracellular controlled release from bioresponsive mesoporous silica with folate as both targeting and capping agent

A smart mesoporous silica nanocarrier with intracellular controlled release is fabricated, with folic acid as dual-functional targeting and capping agent. The folate not only improves the efficiency of the nanocarrier internalized by the cancer cells, but also blocks the pores of the mesoporous silica to eliminate premature leakage of the drug. With disulfide bonds as linkers to attach the dual-functional folate within the surface of mesoporous silica, the controlled release can be triggered in the presence of reductant dithiothreitol (DTT) or glutathione (GSH). The cellular internalization via folate-receptor-mediated endocytosis and the intracellular controlled release of highly toxic anticancer drug DOX were demonstrated with an in vitro HeLa cell culture, indicating an efficient cancer-targeted drug delivery.