Silica-Based Nanoparticles for Intracellular Drug Delivery

Abstract

Silica-based nanoparticles have recently raised a great deal of attention as possible drug carriers. Such an interest is driven by the possibility to control their size, the chemical composition and the porous structure as well as to easily modify their surface with a wide range of biologically-relevant functionalities, favoring colloidal stability, long-time blood circulation and even specific targeting. Drug loading can be performed during particle formation but, at this time, the most popular method relies on the impregnation of pre-formed mesoporous colloids. Strategies to control drug delivery via bio-responsive pore capping are also developed. However, despite an increasing number of in vitro and in vivo studies related to the interaction of silica particles with cells and animals, their biocompatibility is still an issue, especially if applications in intracellular drug delivery are foreseen.

Magnetite-Silica Core/Shell Nanostructures: From Surface Functionalization towards Biomedical Applications—A Review

“…The major advantage of the Stöber method is that it can synthesize almost monodisperse silica nanoparticles and, as already said before, it remains the most widely used wet chemistry synthesis approach for silica nanoparticles. Because monodisperse silica nanoparticles with controlled sizes are produced, the process is considered a convenient approach in preparing silica nanoparticles for applications including intracellular drug delivery and biosensing [66,67].…”

Design of an amphiphilic hyperbranched core/shell-type polymeric nanocarrier platform for drug delivery

“…In particular, particle size and surface behaviors have a significant role in passive targeting and the cellular uptake of nanoparticles. Torchilin et al stated that nanoparticles of less than 200 nm are capable of spontaneous accumulations at the tumor region via enhanced permeability and retention effect and can be efficiently internalized through endocytosis by cancer cells [9,33,34]. As, within the scope of this study, the prepared HPAE-PCL-b-MPEG nanoparticles are smaller than 200 nm, we can say that HPAE-PCL-b-MPEG nanoparticles can be accumulated at tumor regions.…”

“…In addition, the size (d. nm) and zeta potential of 5Fu-loaded HPAE-PCL-b-MPEG nanoparticles were found to be about 44.81 ±16.73 nm ( Figure 6B) and +11.3 ±0.8 mV. Nanoparticles can be accumulated at the tumor region via enhanced permeability and retention effect if their size is less than 200 nm [9,33,34] and their positively charged surface allows an electrostatic interaction between negatively charged cellular membranes and positively charged nanoparticles [42]. Consequently, hydrophilic shell, nonspherical shape, size, and zeta potential value of nanoparticles predict that the circulation time of HPAE-PCL-b-MPEG nanoparticles in the blood is partially extended.…”