“…The scanning electron microscopy analysis of spray dried powders showed spherical microparticles with nanoparticles on their surfaces (Müller et al, 2000;Pohlmann et al, 2002;Raffin et al, 2003). In parallel, silica nano and microparticles have been described as drug controlled release carriers prepared by sol-gel processes (Kortesuo et al, 2002;Smirnova et al, 2003), porous hollow silica nanoparticles (Chen et al, 2004) or organosilicate-polymer drug delivery systems (Cypes et al, 2003). Furthermore, silica particles have been studied for the adsolubilization of drugs and other substances on their surfaces, employing cationic or nonionic surfactants (Cherkaoui et al, 1998;Cherkaoui et al, 2000), and for development of powders for inhalation (Kawashima et al, 1998) and nanoparticles for in vitro gene transfer (Kneuer et al, 2000;Sameti et al, 2003).…”