Role of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles as Drug Carriers: Evaluation of Diverse Mesoporous Material Nanoparticles as Potential Host for Various Applications

Abstract

Effective treatment of patients suffering from fatal diseases such as cancer, AIDS, tuberculosis, etc., has always been a challenge, and new approaches are continuously explored so as to prevent or reduce the toxic side effects of such drugs. The exploration of silica-based mesoporous nanoparticles as a host for better therapeutic action of drugs has provided some very positive and encouraging outcomes. The characteristics of these mesoporous materials needed for maximum loading of the drug and then the subsequent release of drug from the host can give the idea about the suitability of these materials as drug carriers. The manuscript describes various morphological properties of mesoporous materials which can favour the maximum drug loading in the mesopores. The subsequent release of the drug trapped from the mesopores can be tailored to a specific site release (targeted drug delivery), release at a slow rate (sustained drug delivery) or fast or immediate release so that it can show maximum biological activity. Most of the studies have shown great potential of these mesoporous materials as a carrier to carry sufficient amount of the drug and release it in a desired manner. The review presents the current status of the applications of mesoporous materials as host for drug molecules.

Current status of silica-based nanoparticles as therapeutics and its potential as therapies against viruses

“…Though there has been an early in-human study which showed silica gel was equivalent to acyclovir in the topical treatment for herpes labialis ( Zschocke et al, 2008 ), similar subsequent in-human studies have not been attempted and development in this area had remained slow before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, with the widespread use of the latest LNP based mRNA vaccines against SARS-CoV-2, interest in silica-based nanoparticle vaccines has been invigorated ( Rajput et al, 2022 ).…”