Targeted and stimuli–responsive mesoporous silica nanoparticles for drug delivery and theranostic use

Abstract

For cancer therapy, the usefulness of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MPSNPs) has been widely discussed, likely due to its inorganic nature and excellent structural features. The MPSNPs‐based chemotherapeutics have been promisingly delivered to their target sites that help to minimize side effects and improve therapeutic effectiveness. A wide array of studies have been conducted to functionalize drug‐loaded MPSNPs using targeting ligands and stimuli‐sensitive substances. In addition, anticancer drugs have been precisely delivered to their target sites using MPSNPs, which respond to multi‐stimuli. Furthermore, MPSNPs have been extensively tested for their safety and compatibility. The toxicity level of MPSNPs is substantially lower as compared to that of colloidal silica; however, in oxidative stress, they exhibit cytotoxic features. The biocompatibility of MPSNPs can be improved by modifying their surfaces. This article describes the production procedures, functionalization, and applications of biocompatible MPSNPs in drug delivery.

Delivery of Natural Agents by Means of Mesoporous Silica Nanospheres as a Promising Anticancer Strategy

“…Below, we highlight the common and promising families that could be favored for drug delivery and medical applications. Numerous interesting review articles have been published on MSN synthesis strategies and applications that we recommend for further reading [10,22,32,73,[75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83]. Note: The above-mentioned characteristics of these materials can be controlled and can vary (more or less) from these values.…”

Multimodal Decorations of Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles for Improved Cancer Therapy

“…Meanwhile, the controlled release of drugs to the disease site without any leakage to healthy tissues can be achieved by employing gatekeepers for the end-capping of MSN, triggered by various internal or external stimuli, such as pH, redox, enzyme activity, heat, light or magnetic field [ 205 , 206 ]. To achieve the precise chemotherapy of cancer, the most desired drug delivery system should possess high drug loading efficiency, site-specificity and the capacity of controlled drug release [ 207 ]. Hence, in this part of the review, we will report about the recently tried efforts for surface modification of MSN, exploiting both the active targeting and stimuli responsive behavior simultaneously ( Figure 3 ), to obtain high efficacy with low dosage and minimize the off-target side effects of chemotherapy.…”

Photocontrolled Release of the Anticancer Drug Chlorambucil with Caged Harmonic Nanoparticles

“…Among the different types of nanocarriers which were developed for applications in cancer diagnosis and treatment, inorganic nanoparticles (NPs) have emerged as versatile platforms for targeted cancer imaging and drug delivery due to their inherent physical properties which allow a variety of imaging modalities and their ability for surface modification with targeting ligands and/or caged therapeutic payloads. Seminal achievements were disclosed with mesoporous silica NPs, which are composed by inner pores suitable for the immobilization of molecular cargos and outside surface amenable to conjugation with imaging probes and caging molecules . Other promising strategies include the use of functionalized superparamagnetic iron oxide NPs for targeted magnetic resonance imaging, local thermal‐ablation of cancer cells triggered by an external magnetic field and controlled delivery of chemotherapeutics such as doxorubicin .…”