Silica-based mesoporous nanoparticles for controlled drug delivery

Abstract

Drug molecules with lack of specificity and solubility lead patients to take high doses of the drug to achieve sufficient therapeutic effects. This is a leading cause of adverse drug reactions, particularly for drugs with narrow therapeutic window or cytotoxic chemotherapeutics. To address these problems, there are various functional biocompatible drug carriers available in the market, which can deliver therapeutic agents to the target site in a controlled manner. Among the carriers developed thus far, mesoporous materials emerged as a promising candidate that can deliver a variety of drug molecules in a controllable and sustainable manner. In particular, mesoporous silica nanoparticles are widely used as a delivery reagent because silica possesses favourable chemical properties, thermal stability and biocompatibility. Currently, sol-gel-derived mesoporous silica nanoparticles in soft conditions are of main interest due to simplicity in production and modification and the capacity to maintain function of bioactive agents. The unique mesoporous structure of silica facilitates effective loading of drugs and their subsequent controlled release. The properties of mesopores, including pore size and porosity as well as the surface properties, can be altered depending on additives used to fabricate mesoporous silica nanoparticles. Active surface enables functionalisation to modify surface properties and link therapeutic molecules. The tuneable mesopore structure and modifiable surface of mesoporous silica nanoparticle allow incorporation of various classes of drug molecules and controlled delivery to the target sites. This review aims to present the state of knowledge of currently available drug delivery system and identify properties of an ideal drug carrier for specific application, focusing on mesoporous silica nanoparticles.

Structure Analysis of Fe3O4@SiO2 Core Shells Prepared from Amorphous and Crystalline SiO2 Particles

“…Based on the previous reports, various methods have been employed such as hydrolysis, microemulsions, and co-precipitation. Meanwhile, the Fe3O4/SiO2 nanocomposites have been fabricated via coprecipitation method [1], [15], [23], [24]. In this work, we exploited a simple coprecipitation method at room temperature which easier to control the particle size of the samples.…”

“…Typically, the SiO2 nanoparticle has an amorphous phase, and it can be commercially produced as silica gel, fume-silica, and so forth. Several applications of SiO2 nanoparticles for examples such as medical purposes [22][23][24], as additives for rubber and plastics [25][26][27], as fillers for composite construction concrete [28][29][30], as stabilizers and agents drug delivery and theranostics [23,31], and as a heavy metal absorbent material in a water filter [14], [22].…”

Thermoresponsive copolymer-grafted SBA-15 porous silica particles for temperature-triggered topical delivery systems

“…Copolymerization of NIPAM with different monomers thus allows tuning of the properties especially LCST of PNIPAM according to the requirements of the applications under investigation. There is increased interest in hybrid thermoresponsive DDS as several studies reported their synthesis and testing for the delivery of various drugs in different environments and physiological conditions, including dermal drug delivery and also their use in dermocosmetic applications [10]. For the preparation of hybrid thermosensitive DDS, the thermoresponsive polymer needs to be anchored on a solid support.…”

Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles (MSN): A Nanonetwork and Hierarchical Structure in Drug Delivery

“…This refers to pores acting as passages between the external and internal surfaces of a solid, allowing material to pass into, through, or out of the solid [16]. The possibility of using mesoporous materials such as Santa Barbara Amorphous-15 (SBA-15) or Mobile Crystalline Matter-48 (MCM-48) and some metal organic frameworks as drug carriers and controlled release systems has been discussed [18,19]. Mesoporous materials are essentially prepared through the formation of silica around template micelle assemblies followed by removal of the template using appropriate methods such as calcination and solvent evaporation.…”