Disulfide-phenylazide: a reductively cleavable photoreactive linker for facile modification of nanoparticle surfaces

Abstract

In this study, a reductively cleavable photoreactive linker, disulfide-phenylazide (SPA), was synthesized and used to functionalize inorganic mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) by simple amidation reaction. Changed zeta potential, FT-IR and UV-vis or fluorescence spectra confirmed the successful photo-responsive functionalization of dextran (DSPA-MSNs) and immobilization of model avidin protein (ASPA-MSNs). With treatment by reducing agents, both DSPA-MSNs (with 10 mM DTT) and ASPA-MSNs (with 10 mM GSH) exhibited the reductive-responsive controllable release of coumarin 460 and bioactive protein. These results implied that the designed photo-affinity functional agent SPA with reductive-responsive cleavage provided a promising method to functionalize inorganic nanoparticles to improve their biocompatibility and biomedical applications.