Spherical and rod shaped mesoporous silica nanoparticles for cancer-targeted and photosensitizer delivery in photodynamic therapy.

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs) have attracted much attention in many biomedical applications. One of the fields in which smart functional nanosystems have found wide application is cancer treatment. Here, we present new silica nanoparticle-based systems which have been explored as efficient vehicles to transport and deliver photosensitizers (PSs) into tumor tissues during photodynamic therapy (PDT). In this work, we report the preparation, characterization, and in vitro studies of distinct shaped MSNPs grafted with S-glycoside porphyrins (Pors). The ensuing nanomaterials were fully characterized, and their properties as third-generation PSs for PDT against two bladder cancer cell lines, HT-1376 and UM-UC-3, were examined. The best uptake results were obtained for MSNP-PS2, while MSNP-PS1 showed the lowest cellular uptake among the nanocarriers tested, but revealed the best phototoxicity in both cancer cells. Overall, the phototoxicity was higher with MSNPs than with mesoporous silica nanorods (MSNRs) and higher uptake and phototoxicity were consistently observed in UM-UC-3 rather than in HT-1376 cancer cells.