Functional mesoporous silica nanoparticles for delivering nimesulide with chiral recognition performance

It is predictable that carriers presented with chiral structure can display different drug delivery effect, which is of great interest and novelty in material science and pharmacy. Herein, we synthesized functional mesoporous silica nanoparticles (F-MSNs) with molecular level chiral function property. The obtained levorotatory MSNs and dextrorotatory MSNs were named as FL-MSNs and FD-MSNs, respectively. To explore their special features in delivering drug molecules, drug delivery systems based on FL-MSNs and FD-MSNs were established by using nimesulide (NMS) as model drug. Characterization techniques, including Fourier Transform infrared spectrometer (FTIR), circular dichroism (CD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), nitrogen adsorption/desorption measurement, were applied. The results showed that after loading NMS into FL-MSNs and FD-MSNs, most crystalline NMS converted to amorphous phase confirmed by differential scanning calorimeter (DSC) and X-ray power diffraction (XRD) analysis. Besides, FL-MSNs and FD-MSNs showed responses in corresponding chiral medium and FD-MSNs turned out to be the superior carrier. The superior chiral response performance of FD-MSNs was also confirmed using molecular simulation and wettability study. Finally, in vivo pharmacokinetics and anti-inflammatory pharmacodynamics studies indicated that both FL-MSNs and FDMSNs could improve the oral bioavailability of NMS (698.45% and 887.03% respectively), and FD-MSNs delivered more NMS after making response to the in vivo environment and thereafter presented stronger anti-inflammatory pharmacodynamics performance.