Small-sized deformable hollow mesoporous organosilica nanocapsules with improved cellular uptake.

The application of nanomaterials in biomedical fields is greatly influenced by their properties such as size, morphology, and surface properties. The deformability of nanomaterials in recently found influence the blood circulation, pharmacokinetics, tumor accumulation, and treatment performance for diseases. In the work, we successfully fabricated small-sized deformable mesoporous organosilica nanocapsules (SDMONC) via a preferential etching approach. To synthesize the SDMONC, a series of small mesostructured organosilica nanoparticles (MONs) are prepared by adjusting the concentrations of cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB). After etching the interiors of the MONs with NaOH, small-sized SDMONC with diameters ranging from 70 to 156 nm are obtained. The prepared SDMONC have uniform diameter, high specific surface area (266 m² g⁻¹), uniform pore diameter (4.0 nm), and excellent biocompability. The cellular uptake of the SDMONC was investigated, which exhibited higher cellular uptake efficiency and cancer cell-killing efficiency than the nondeformable nanoparticles, showing great promise for biomedical applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]