Formulation, Characterization and Evaluation of Quercetin-loaded Chitosan-functionalized Mesoporous Silica for Targeted Drug Delivery in Cancer Treatment

Quercetin is a safe herbal metabolism which has effective role on inhibition of tumor cells and growth of many types of cancers. In this study to improve the efficiency and bioavailability of Quercetin molecule, Chitosan-functionalized nanoporous mesoporous Silica was used as a pH-sensitive biopolymer. For this purpose, at first nanoporous Mesoporous silica was synthesized by sol-gel method; then Chitosan layer was coated on nanoporous of silica using GPTMS in an acidic medium. Different analysis methods such as FESEM, BET and FTIR were used to characterize the synthesized nanocarrier. FESEM and BET analysis results demonstrated nanometric sizes of particles and porosities. FTIR analysis picks showed successful drug loading on nanocarrier. On the other hand, calculation of drug loading content and encapsulation efficiency in acidic and physiologic pH, illustrated that nanocarrier has suitable performance and stability for drug loading and release. Cytotoxicity of as-drug formulation in different concentrations was investigated by MTT assay on HeLa cells. The results showed that cytotoxicity of as-drug formulation increased in comparison to free drug and IC50 value of HeLa cells decreased from 58 M for free Quercetin to 36 M for loaded Quercetin. Eventually this study showed Chitosan-functionalized Mesoporous Silica nanocarrier could be considered as a smart and biocompatible drug delivery system to carry Quercetin drug for cancer cells treatment.