Smart hybrid copolymer-coated silica nanosystems with dual responsiveness as a carrier for positive charged molecules

Abstract

Smart nanosystems consisting of inorganic particles and responsive polymers display significant and remarkable aspects. Such combined work exploits a facile path for multifunctional nanomaterials and facilitates various novel technological applications due to “live” polymer components. Here, we report the design and synthesis of a new platform of smart hybrid nanosystems (SHN) for positively charged probe loading and specific release under pH and temperature-controlled conditions. The SHN was prepared by a simple sequential method that produced an integrated core–shell nanomaterial with a dual stimulus response and excellent colloidal stability. Further, we demonstrate by crossing DLS and NMR results that these core–shell nanosystems present transduction from both stimuli to a mechanical shrinkage of the polymeric shell, leading to a remote-controlled dual response that can be synthetically tuned by controlling the molar ratio between monomers. Finally, we studied the potential of these SHN as molecular carriers and demonstrated that they are useful for selective ionic encapsulation of positively charged molecules, which release is controlled by the dual responsiveness. We successfully extended this concept to doxorubicin release triggered by T and pH changes, which opens possibilities of using these SHN improving results and patient compliance in chemotherapy treatments.