Multifunctional silica nanotubes for dual-modality gene delivery and MR imaging.

This work demonstrated the development of multifunctional silica nanotubes (SNT) by functionalization of their inner void and outer surface with magnetic-fluorescence nanocomposites and cationic polymers, respectively. The successful construction of BPEI-SNT was established by electron energy loss spectroscopy in conjugation with standard analytical tools. The mean fluorescence intensity in a FACS assay, a luciferase gene expression assay and a confocal fluorescence study demonstrated the efficacy of BPEI-SNT as a gene delivery vector. Endocytotic uptake was also demonstrated by the colocalization of LysoTracker Red(®) and green fluorescent quantum dots. Moreover, enhanced magnetic resonance imaging revealed the potential of the BPEI-SNT nanocomposite to act as a dual-modality nano-device.