Towards biomedical application of amino- functionalized silicon nanoparticles: radio and photodynamic therapy, skin penetration, and toxicity on zebrafish

LILLO, CRISTIAN R; CALIENNI, MARÍA NATALIA; GOROJOD, ROXANA MAYRA; RIVAS AIELLO, MARÍA BELÉN; RODRIGUEZ SARTORI, DAMIÁN ; PRIETO, MARÍA JIMENA; ALONSO, SILVIA; KOTLER, MÓNICA LIDIA; GONZALEZ, MÓNICA CRISTINA; MONTANARI, JORGE

NANOMEDICINE

FUTURE MEDICINE LTD

Lugar: Londres; Año: 2018 vol. 13 p. 1349 - 1370

1743-5889

In this work the interaction of SiNP amino-functionalized with in vitro and in vivo models was studied to evaluate its potential applications in therapies, to determined its toxicity and its use in transdermal treatments. The NH 2 SiNP did not present intrinsic toxicity below 100 µg/ml both in in vitro (C6 and HeLa cell lines) and in vivo (embryos and larvae of zebrafish). The NH 2 SiNP showed a moderate effect as photosensitizer for PDT on HeLa cells, a model cell line for assays in this kind of therapy. When NH 2 SiNP were studied as potential effectors for radiotherapy on C6 cells, instead of acting as radiosensitizers, NH 2 SiNP reduced the cytotoxic effect. In sum, both effects could be due to a ROS scavenging effect of the NH 2 SiNP. This effect could be related to the high reactivity of amino groups with ROS. Respect to the potential application for the topical administration route, the encapsulation of the NH 2 SiNP into a specific drug delivery system for the skin as UDL rendered a stable formulation. It improved their penetration profile allowing them to reach deep skin layers after non-occlusive application. As the medium life of reactive species generated by these nanoparticles is very short, their specific delivery to those skin layers could be crucial. In sum, these results show that the functionalization with amino groups would not be enough per se for this kind of therapies. Subsequent derivatizations could improve their biomedical application.