Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles as a Nanocarrier for Delivery of Vitamin C

Background: In the last decades, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) are improved for drug delivery, imaging, and biomedical applications due to their special properties such as large surface area, high drug loading capacity, tunable pore size, and modification of surface area by functional groups. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate MSNs as carriers for oral colon-specific and human plasma blood delivery of vitamin C. Materials and Methods: In this work, mesoporous silica nanoparticles were synthesized and characterized by transmission electron microscopy (TEM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and N2- adsorption. Then MSNs were loaded by L-ascorbic acid (AscH2), and the release of L-ascorbic acid from AscH2-MSNs into the simulated fluids in different pHs was investigated, including simulated gastric fluid (SGF, 1.2), simulated intestinal fluid (SIF, 6.8), and simulated body fluid (SBF, 7.4). The amount of loaded AscH2 into the MSNs was determined by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Results: Synthesized MSNs were spheres and the average diameter of them was 100 ± 9 nm. Results showed that about 567.8 nanomole of vitamin C per gram of MSNs were loaded. It was found that the burst release of AscH2 into SGF was slower than SIF and SBF. Conclusions: The rate of AscH2 release from the nanoparticles into alkaline solutions was faster than acidic solutions because of electrostatic interactions between vitamin C and MSNs surface. The loading amount of Vitamin C was dependent on the surface of chemical moiety of MSNs and the steric effects of vitamin C structure.