Aspartic acid functionalized PEGylated MSN@GO hybrid as an effective and sustainable nano-system for in-vitro drug delivery

Purpose: In this research, aspartic acid functionalized PEGylated mesoporous silica nanoparticlesgraphene oxide nanohybrid (As-PEGylated-MSN@GO) prepared as a pH-responsive drug carrier for the curcumin delivery. For better camouflage during blood circulation, poly(ethylene glycol) was decorated on the surface of MSN@GO nanohybrid. Materials and methods: The nanocarrier was characterized by using X-ray powder diffraction (XRD), dynamic light scattering (DLS), UV-vis spectroscopy, thermal gravimetry analysis (TGA), FT-IR, SEM and TEM. Results: The size of modified MSN@GO was around 75.8 nm and 24% wt. of curcumin was loaded on the final nanohybrid. pHdecrement from 7.4 to 5.8 the release medium led to increase the cumulative amount of drug release from 54% to 98%. Conclusions: As-functionalized MSN@GO had no cytotoxicity against human breast adenocarcinoma (MCF-7) and human mammary epithelial (MCF10A) as cancerous and normal cell lines, respectively. Whereas curcuminloaded nanohybrid showed excellent killing capability against MCF-7 cells.