BSA-coated fluorescent organic–inorganic hybrid silica nanoparticles: preparation and drug delivery

Abstract

It is desirable to engineer bio-compatible construction materials and cargo release vehicles with efficient cargo loading capability and controlled drug delivery ability. Herein, an inorganic–organic hybrid composite DNDT&SiO₂–NH₂@BSA was established using two steps. Technologically, the fluorescent DNDT was grafted on the particles surface via solid phase synthesis, which was able to report the occurrence of interactions between the silica cores and proteins of bovine serum albumin (BSA) by real-time optical change analysis. It should be noted that the construction method derived from this study can be transposed easily to other surface modification procedures. Interestingly, DNDT&SiO₂–NH₂@BSA could be dispersed into an aqueous phase very well, leading to a homogeneous distribution of the drug over the matrix with a more efficient manner. Furthermore, due to the temperature-dependent α-helix content changes, the encapsulators of BSA can capture the drugs at low temperature and release them with elevating temperature. In particular, a desirable controlled release is realized at 37 °C.