Pullulan-Functionalized Fe3O4 Nanoparticles with Mesopore Silica-Loaded Tetraphenylporphyrin Tetrasulfonic Acid Hydrate for Targeting Photodynamic Therapy

In cancer diagnosis and treatment, it is significant to targetedly and efficiently deliver drugs to tumor cells. In our present work, a multifunctional drug delivery system (Fe3O4@mSiO2(TPPS)-PL), pullulan (PL) coated Fe3O4@mSiO2 core/shell nanoparticles with tetraphenylporphyrin tetrasulfonic acid hydrate (TPPS) as a model photodynamic drug, has been designed and prepared. The obtained Fe3O4@mSiO2(TPPS)-PL nanoparticles were discrete and uniformly sized with an average diameter of 180 ± 10 nm. The cellular uptake of the Fe3O4@mSiO2(TPPS)-PL nanoparticles against HepG2 cells and HeLa cells were evaluated by flow cytometry and confocal scanning laser microscopy (CLSM), respectively. The results indicated that the cellular uptake of the nanoparticles by HepG2 cells was more than that by HeLa cells due to that HepG2 cells express maximum asialoglycoprotein receptor (ASGPR), and the uptake process was time-dependent. Additionally, the phototoxicity of Fe3O4@mSiO2(TPPS)-PL nanoparticles against HepG2 cells was investigated by MTT assay, and the materials exhibited efficient phototoxicity. It was suggested that the multifunctional drug delivery system is capable of targeting specific receptors, which is promising for photodynamic therapy (PDT).