Fluorescent Silicon Nanoparticles-based Drug Nanocarriers For Cancer Therapy

In the last decade, drug nanocarriers based on fluorescent nanomaterials have been extensively explored for optical-imaging guided cancer therapy. Silicon nanoparticles(Si NPs) are regarded as potentially ideal fluorescent bioprobes due to their unique optical properties(e.g, high fluorescence and strong photostablility). Here,highly fluorescent, photostable, and ultrasmall(~4 nm) Si NPs are employed as the drug nanocarriers by loading a kind of anticancer drug(doxorubicin, DOX). The fluorescent drug nanocarriers are readily achieved via a facile one-step procedure without requiring additional doping with fluorescent species. Si NPs-based nanocarriers feature strong fluorescence, small-size, robust photostability, and adaptable drug loading efficiency. Most significantly, taking advantage of their ultrahigh photostability and non- or low toxic properties, we demonstrate that Si NPs-based nanocarriers are suitable for long-term live cancer cell tracking. Moreover, in vitro and in vivo experiments demonstrate that the as-prepared Si NPs-based drug nanocarriers are highly efficacious for cancer therapy.