Photothermal-Triggered Controlled Drug Release from Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles Based on Base-Pairing Rules

Base-pairing is stable under physiological temperature but broken by heating, which is the basic mechanism for nucleic acid amplification in biology. In this manuscript, a simple controlled-drug-release system was prepared on the basis of this rule and its in vivo activity was studied. Poly adenine (poly A), the tail of the synthesized RNA chain, was exploited as gatekeeper of thymine (T)-modified mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN-T) based on the simple A-T base-pairing rules. The gate keeper maintains stability to avoid drug (chemotherapy and photothermal therapy drugs) release during the delivery process but is effectively removed by a photothermal effect to trigger drug release at the tumor tissue by near-infrared (NIR) laser irradiation. In vitro and in vivo experiments indicated that the prepared nanomedicine could effectively suppress tumor growth and activate antitumor immunity.