Progress on the design of diverse gatekeepers for mesoporous silica nanoparticle based drug delivery systems is summarized.

A reversible and highly selective luminescent probe was successfully employed for the determination of ClO⁻ and H₂S and for monitoring the ClO⁻/H₂S redox cycle both in vitro and in vivo.

In this work, a triple-stimuli (GSH, pH and light irradiation) responsive system were designed based on CeO₂nanoparticles (CeO₂NPs) coated doxorubicin (DOX) and photosensitizer hematoporphyrin (HP) dual-loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN). Upon entering into cancer cells, both high concentration of intracellular GSH and low pH environment would reduce CeO₂NPs to cerium ions, accompanied with the degradation of CeO₂NPs and the conformational change of HP under light irradiation, the preloaded DOX are thus released from the nanocarrier, resulting in a contrast fluorescence enhancement. Meanwhile,¹O₂generated from HP for potential photodynamic therapy (PDT) upon light irradiation. In comparison, not much influence can be observed for normal cells. This nanosystem not only has a significantly enhanced efficacy for cancer cells but also broad the scope for the future design and applications of multifunctional platforms for synergetic chemotherapy and PDT.