Oral or intravenous chemotherapy is an important strategy to treat metastatic cancer, but it may cause systemic toxicity for healthy tissue. Herein, we for the first time fabricated mesoporous ZSM-5 zeolites/chitosan core-shell nanodisks loaded with doxorubicin (ZSM-5/CS/DOX) as drug delivery systems against osteosarcoma. The mesoporous ZSM-5 zeolites exhibited disk-like shapes with thicknesses of 100nm and diameters of 300nm, and the mesopores with pore sizes of 3.75nm were originated from desilication treatment. The pH-responsive ZSM-5/CS/DOX nanodisks possessed a great drug loading efficiency of 97.7%, and their controlled release trends of DOX were fitted well with the Korsmeyer-Peppas model. The DOX could be efficiently released the ZSM-5/CS/DOX nanodisks after cellular endocytosis and induced cancer cells apoptosis. Moreover, the pH-responsive drug carriers led to efficient tumor inhibition with low side effects, especially cardiac toxicity, as confirmed by pharmacokinetic study, serological examination and H&E staining assays. Therefore, the ZSM-5/CS/DOX nanodisks are a promising pH-responsive drug carrier for targeted cancer therapy.
Keywords: Chitosan; Cytotoxicity; Osteosarcoma; ZSM-5 zeolite; pH-responsive.
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