Chiral Skeletons of Mesoporous Silica Nanospheres to Mitigate Alzheimer's β-Amyloid Aggregation

J Am Chem Soc. 2023 Apr 12;145(14):7810-7819. doi: 10.1021/jacs.2c12214. Epub 2023 Apr 1.

Abstract

Chiral mesoporous silica (mSiO2) nanomaterials have gained significant attention during the past two decades. Most of them show a topologically characteristic helix; however, little attention has been paid to the molecular-scale chirality of mSiO2 frameworks. Herein, we report a chiral amide-gel-directed synthesis strategy for the fabrication of chiral mSiO2 nanospheres with molecular-scale-like chirality in the silicate skeletons. The functionalization of micelles with the chiral amide gels via electrostatic interactions realizes the growth of molecular configuration chiral silica sols. Subsequent modular self-assembly results in the formation of dendritic large mesoporous silica nanospheres with molecular chirality of the silica frameworks. As a result, the resultant chiral mSiO2 nanospheres show abundant large mesopores (∼10.1 nm), high pore volumes (∼1.8 cm3·g-1), high surface areas (∼525 m2·g-1), and evident CD activity. The successful transfer of the chirality from the chiral amide gels to composited micelles and further to asymmetric silica polymeric frameworks based on modular self-assembly leads to the presence of molecular chirality in the final products. The chiral mSiO2 frameworks display a good chiral stability after a high-temperature calcination (even up to 1000 °C). The chiral mSiO2 can impart a notable decline in β-amyloid protein (Aβ42) aggregation formation up to 79%, leading to significant mitigation of Aβ42-induced cytotoxicity on the human neuroblastoma line SH-ST5Y cells in vitro. This finding opens a new avenue to construct the molecular chirality configuration in nanomaterials for optical and biomedical applications.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Alzheimer Disease*
  • Amides
  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • Gels
  • Humans
  • Micelles
  • Nanospheres* / chemistry
  • Silicon Dioxide / chemistry

Substances

  • Amyloid beta-Peptides
  • Silicon Dioxide
  • Micelles
  • Gels
  • Amides