Multifunctional Folic acid‐coated and Doxorubicin Encapsulated Mesoporous Silica Nanocomposites (FA/DOX@Silica) for Cancer Therapeutics, Bioimaging and invitro Studies

Abstract Cancer is a cluster of diseases, which caused by the mutation in cells and it has the potential to cover any part of the body. The whole world is vigorously struggling to find a safe approach to cure the cancer. The classical chemotherapy approach involves the use of chemotherapeutic agents to kill cancer cells. The major disadvantage of therapy is less in vivo stability and negatively affects the healthy cells. Nowadays, the targeted drug delivery techniques has gained lots of interest, because of the efficient drug release at the cancerous sites. Herein, we have synthesized Folic acid (FA) coated and Doxorubicin drug (Dox) encapsulated mesoporous silica nanocomposites (FA/Dox@Silica)for targeted delivery of DOX and bioimaging. Encapsulation of Dox was done to make it more stable in the cell atmosphere and for its controlled release. The coating of FA makes these nanocomposites makes them an vehical for chemically targeted delivey of DOX, as it was already confirmed by several studies that there are folate receptors present over cancer cells and these reseptors are responsive towards the FA Thus these nanocomposites can be easily recognized by the cancer cells and they can efficiently deliver drugs. The shape, size, morphology, crystallinity, porosity, and fictionalizations were analyzed by using several characterization techniques such as DLS, TEM, and FTIR. The drug loading was confirmed qualitatively by using optical spectroscopic techniques. The drug release pattern was studiedfor the 15 days which showed the sustained and regulated release of drug from the mesoporous silica nanocomposites. Cellular uptake was observed by cell staining assay confirmed the fair uptake of nanoparticles.