Advances in mesoporous silica nanoparticles for targeted stimuli-responsive drug delivery

Abstract

MSNPs are promising nanocarriers to efficiently transport and site-specifically deliver highly toxic drugs, such as chemotherapeutic agents for cancer treatment. However, there are certain issues that should be overcome to improve the suitability of MSNPs for clinical applications. Increasing the penetration capability of MSNPs within tumour tissues, providing them of appropriate colloidal stability in physiological fluids and ensuring that their active targeting capability and stimuli-responsive performance are preserved in complex biological media are of foremost significance. Few in vivo evaluation tests of MSNPs have been reported and much research effort into this field is mandatory to be able to move from bench to bedside.

Hybrid Collagenase Nanocapsules for Enhanced Nanocarrier Penetration in Tumoral Tissues

“…18,19 Thus, MSNs were synthesized following the modified Stöber method reported elsewhere. 20 According to DLS and TEM, the particles show a homogeneous size distribution centered around 140 nm which is convenient for their application as drug nanocarriers.…”

Synthesis, Functionalization, and Design of Magnetic Nanoparticles for Theranostic Applications

“…[604a] Tracking particle fate for favoring the cell internalization and allowing a magnetically guided accumulation in tumor tissues are of important advantages of these devices. [607] Combined with possibilities offered by EPR effect in passive targeting and high affinities of active targeting, a wide range of therapeutics including biotherapeutics (such as gene, siRNA, peptides, and proteins), [608] chemotherapeutics (such as doxorubicin, paclitaxel, and methotrexate) [609] and radiotherapeutics [610] have been integrated into MNPs to be specifically delivered into their target sites.…”

Recent applications of the combination of mesoporous silica nanoparticles with nucleic acids: development of bioresponsive devices, carriers and sensors

“…For this reason a significant effort has been done to develop different responsive systems able to efficiently retain the loaded compounds. 10,17 Among all different nanogates developed, extensively reviewed by Martiñez-Máñez and coworkers, 17 our interest would be focused only on the use of nucleic acids, particularly DNA. The use of NAs for this purpose present significant advances as biocompatibility, custom synthesis, length variability and chemical stability, huge sensitivity towards complementary sequences, recognition abilities and gene modulation roles.…”

“…This particular morphology allows the hosting of significant amounts of small molecules, 7 chemotherapeutics 8 or even macromolecules, thus opening the way for the development of drug carriers and nanodevices for intracellular detection. [9][10][11] Moreover, and oppositely to other nanoparticles, MSNs offer intrinsic advantages like an outstanding chemical modularity, robustness and biodegradability. [12][13][14][15] Despite the huge potential for carrier development, the use of MSNs is still far from an extensive clinical application.…”