Mesoporous Silica Nanomaterials: Versatile Nanocarriers for Cancer Theranostics and Drug and Gene Delivery

Abstract

Mesoporous silica nanomaterials (MSNs) have made remarkable achievements and are being thought of by researchers as materials that can be used to effect great change in cancer therapies, gene delivery, and drug delivery because of their optically transparent properties, flexible size, functional surface, low toxicity profile, and very good drug loading competence. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs) show a very high loading capacity for therapeutic agents. It is well known that cancer is one of the most severe known medical conditions, characterized by cells that grow and spread rapidly. Thus, curtailing cancer is one of the greatest current challenges for scientists. Nanotechnology is an evolving field of study, encompassing medicine, engineering, and science, and it has evolved over the years with respect to cancer therapy. This review outlines the applications of mesoporous nanomaterials in the field of cancer theranostics, as well as drug and gene delivery. MSNs employed as therapeutic agents, as well as their importance and future prospects in the ensuing generation of cancer theranostics and drug and therapeutic gene delivery, are discussed herein. Thus, the use of mesoporous silica nanomaterials can be seen as using one stone to kill three birds.

<p>Effects of miR-26a on Osteogenic Differentiation of Bone Marrow Mesenchymal Stem Cells by a Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticle - PEI - Peptide System</p>

“…SD rBMSCs were seeded in a 96-well plate with a concentration of 5 × 10 3 cells/well and incubated overnight prior to starting the treatments. The cells were washed with PBS and transferred to a low serum medium (5% FBS) without penicillin or streptomycin, prior to treating them with varying concentrations (5,10,20,25,50, and 100 μg/mL) of MSN@PEI-KALA, MSN_miR-26a@PEI-KALA and MSN_miR-NC@PEI-KALA. The CCK-8 assay was used to assess the cell viability at 12 h and 24 h post transfection.…”

“…Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), which have high porosity and specific surface area, tunable size, ideal biodegradability, and biosafety, were well accepted as a perfect drug delivery vehicle or system, therefore a promising vehicle for gene transfection. [24][25][26] Following the development of MSM-41-type MSN nano-vehicles for drug delivery in 2001, various types of MSNs have been designed on the basis of customized payloads that aim to deliver, e.g., bioactive molecules, plasmids, siRNA and DNA, and so on. [27][28][29][30] Advances have been made particularly in the application of MSNs as BTE scaffolds or at least a part of scaffolds in the recent years.…”

Multifunctional Silica-Based Nanoparticles with Controlled Release of Organotin Metallodrug for Targeted Theranosis of Breast Cancer

“…Consequently, the MSNs have stood out in different biomedical fields such as molecular imaging (fluorescence and magnetic resonance imaging) and drug delivery [39][40][41][42][43][44][45]. Especially in this last research area, MSN have shown a lots of benefits [46] such as a variable and controllable particle and pore size, a large surface area that can be selectively functionalized for drug delivery or high biocompatibility [47][48][49] or the possibility of combining several functionalities in a single nanosystem [50]. In this sense, one of these possible combinations is represented by the theranosis or the generation of a single nanoentity able to combine therapeutic and diagnostic features at the same time [28,[51][52][53][54][55].…”

Nanoantioxidant–Based Silica Particles as Flavonoid Carrier for Drug Delivery Applications

“…However, despite its excellent properties, such as its biocompatibility, high specific surface area and versatility on its surface functionalization, several challenges remain. Some of them are related to toxicity in certain tissues, clinical translation, industrial scaling, and optimization in specific drug delivery in the desired therapeutic target, in order to be incorporated as pharmaceutical products [6][7][8][9]. To overcome some of these drawbacks, bio-inspired, bio-mimetic, and smart materials, among others, have been developed [10][11][12].…”