Intracellular stimulus responsive non-covalent peptide gatekeepers in hallow mesoporous silica platform for targeted drug delivery

Among the drug delivery carriers, gatekeepers in mesoporous silica nanoparticles have received much attention in multifunctional targeted drug delivery system due to their tunable pore morphology, high specific surface area, easy surface modification/ bioconjugation for targeting and physiochemical stability. One among them was hollow mesoporous silica nanoparticles. Since they can host the therapeutic compounds that are easily degraded in the hostile biological environment; delivered per se without encapsulation and their void cores can serve as a extra reservoirs for the drug storage. In the present work, we develop a biocompatible and stable carrier for anticancer drug delivery using the noncovalent peptide gatekeeper technique. The drug loaded nanoparticles were wrapped with glutathione s-transferase Z domain peptide. Further this peptide can be decorated with several types of antibody and epibodies to target the cancer cells. Upon its internalization, the drug can be released inside the cell due to the increased intracellular glutathione concentration. Keywords: Glutathione; GST-Z domain; Epibody; Antibody; peptide gatekeepers; mesoporous silica nanoparticles