A General Strategy to Encapsulate Semiconducting Polymers within PEGylated Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Optical Imaging and Drug Delivery |
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Authors: | Feng Lu Chen Zhan Yi Gong Yufu Tang Chen Xie Qi Wang Wenjun Wang Quli Fan Wei Huang |
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Institution: | 1. Key Laboratory for Organic Electronics and Information Displays & Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Biosensors, Institute of Advanced Materials (IAM), Jiangsu National Synergetic Innovation Center for Advanced Materials, Nanjing University of Posts & Telecommunications, Nanjing, 210023 China;2. Key Lab of Optical Communication Science and Technology of Shandong Province & School of Physics Science and Information Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, 252059 China;3. Shanxi Institute of Flexible Electronics, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi'an, 710072 China |
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Abstract: | Although semiconducting polymers (SPs) have become an important category for optical imaging and phototherapy, their biomedical application is still facing a number of challenges. Herein, a cationic surfactant–assisted approach to encapsulate hydrophobic SPs within highly PEGylated mesoporous silica (mSiO2) nanoparticles with excellent colloidal stability and enhanced fluorescence in aqueous solution is reported. In comparison to the previously reported amphiphilic polymer coating and silification method, this universal strategy not only suppresses the formation of empty polymer micelles and free silica nanoparticles, but also provides high specific surface area for drug loading. As a proof of concept, furan-containing diketopyrrolopyrrole-based semiconducting polymers (PDFT) are coated with mesoporous silica and utilized for fluorescence imaging in the second near-infrared region (NIR-II, 1000–1700 nm) and drug delivery. In vivo blood vessel imaging and tumor imaging are achieved with high resolution (0.21 mm) and signal-to-background ratio (≈4.2). Additionally, pH-responsive drug release and improved therapeutic effect are observed. By choosing desired SPs, different optical imaging and therapeutic modalities can also be achieved, thus the SP@mSiO2 nanostructures obtained here provide numerous opportunities for theranostic applications. |
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Keywords: | drug delivery mesoporous silica NIR-II fluorescence imaging optical imaging semiconducting polymers |
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