Plant-Derived Tandem Drug/Mesoporous Silicon Microcarrier Structures for Anti-Inflammatory Therapy

Abstract

The properties of nanostructured plant-derived porous silicon (pSi) microparticles as potential candidates to increase the bioavailability of plant extracts possessing anti-inflammatory activity are described in this work. pSi drug carriers were fabricated using an eco-friendly route from the silicon accumulator plant bamboo (tabasheer) powder by magnesiothermic reduction of plant-derived silica and loaded with ethanolic extracts of Equisetum arvense , another silicon accumulator plant rich in polyphenolic compounds. The anti-inflammatory properties of the active therapeutics present in this extract were measured by sensitive luciferase reporter assays; this active extract was subsequently loaded and released from the pSi matrix, with a clear inhibition of the activity of the inflammatory signaling protein NF-κB over a period of hours in a sustained manner. Our results showed that after loading the extracts of E. arvense into pSi microparticles derived from tabasheer, enhanced anti-inflammatory activity was observed owing to enhanced solubility of the extract.

Nanoporous Silicon as a Green, High-Tech Educational Tool

“…These choices include tabasheer (a silica-rich extract present in bamboo), rice husk, and horsetail (Equestium). Our groups’ collaboration [ 45 , 46 , 47 , 48 ] have demonstrated that pSi derived from magnesiothermic reduction of these plant sources can produce nanostructures for drug delivery. Other research groups [ 49 , 50 , 51 , 52 , 53 , 54 ] have focused on anode material for lithium batteries.…”

Crystallisation Behaviour of Pharmaceutical Compounds Confined within Mesoporous Silicon

“…The XRPD offers a complementary way of assessing the crystallinity of confined compounds [19,25,28,29,[31][32][33]. Like DSC, XRPD can be used to determine if the confined drug is in its crystalline or amorphous state.…”