Hyaluronic Acid-RGD Peptide Conjugated Mesoporous Silica-coated Gold Nanorods for Cancer Dual-targeted Chemo-photothermal Therapy

A multifunctional drug delivery system (GNRs@mSiO 2 -HA-RGD) was developed by conjugating targeting ligand hyaluronic acid (HA) and RGD with mesoporous silica- coated gold nanorods (GNRs@mSiO 2 ) for dual-targeted chemo-photothermal therapy. The physiochemical properties of the prepared nanoparticles were characterized by FTIR, UV-vis spectra, and 1 H NMR. Doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX), an anticancer drug, was used as the model drug to investigate the drug loading, in vitro drug release profiles and cytotoxicity. The experimental results show that DOX-GNRs@mSiO 2 -HA-RGD is synthesized with a mean diameter of 116 nm and a sufficient load capacity of about 19.8%. It also has pH-enzyme sensitive and NIRtriggered drug release manner. Cellular uptake indicates that DOX-GNRs@mSiO 2 -HA-RGD exhibits a higher cellular uptake via CD44 receptor and integrin receptor mediated endocytosis compared with the GNRs@ mSiO 2 modified with one receptor or no receptor. In comparison with chemotherapy or photothermal therapy alone, DOX-GNRs@mSiO 2 -HA-RGD displayes the synergistic effects and achieves a higher therapeutic efficacy. It can be expected that DOX-GNRs@mSiO 2 -HA-RGD is a potential dual-targeted chemo-photothermal therapeutic platform for effective cancer treatment.