Theranostic silica nanoparticles for selective and simultaneous delivery of paclitaxel and coumarin to hypoxic tumors.

Tumor hypoxia and the poor solubility of chemotherapeutics like paclitaxel (paclitaxel) remain critical obstacles in oncology.

The silica nanocarrier is capped with a molecular gate containing a masked coumarin fluorophore attached to a nitro-containing self-immolative spacer.

This design allows for real-time monitoring of drug release.

In vitro assays demonstrated that the nanocarriers selectively reduced the viability of A549 lung cancer cells under hypoxic conditions while exhibiting high biocompatibility with healthy THP-1 macrophages in normoxia.