Application of mesoporous silica nanoparticles as drug delivery carriers for chemotherapeutic agents

Highlights

• Structural and geometrical features of mesoporous silica can benefit drug delivery.

• Coupled with therapeutic agents, targeting for a host of cancers is possible.

• Several shortcomings of existing therapies are shown to be overcome.

Recently, remarkable efforts have focused on research towards enhancing and delivering efficacious and advanced therapeutic agents. Even though this involves significant challenges, innovative techniques and materials have been explored to overcome these. The advantageous properties of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), such as unique morphologies and geometries, makes then favorable for use for various drug delivery targeting purposes, particularly in cancer therapy. As we discuss here, MSNs have been utilized over the past few decades to improve the efficiency of anticancer drugs by enhancing their solubility to render them suitable for application, reducing adverse effects, and improving their anticancer cytotoxic efficiency.

Introduction

Over recent years, various different studies have focused on the application of mesoporous silica-based platforms as effective nanocarriers in chemotherapy [1]. Mesoporous silica has favorable properties for use as a nanocarrier, such as large pore volume, large surface area, and adjustable pore morphological structures 2, 3.

The characteristics of inorganic silica (e.g., size, surface, and topology) can be altered to generate distinct interactions with different types of biological system. Thus, mesoporous silica, amorphous silica, microporous crystalline titanosilicates, and zeolites have been widely used in biomedical applications [4]. The desirable features of mesoporous inorganic materials, more specifically MSNs, are easily tailored to incorporate and interact effectively with an array of poorly soluble drugs and biomolecules. thus, it is clear to see why there is a growing interest in this field 5, 6. Ordered MSNs are characterized by particle size (50–200 nm), pore sizes of 2–6 nm, bulk pore volume of 0.6–1 cm³/g and a large surface area of 700–1000 m²/g. Moreover, MSNs have the ability to bind to various kinds of functional groups of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) to allow targeted delivery to the required site of action. These explicit characteristics render MSNs as promising nanocarriers that have revolutionized different drug delivery approaches [7], such as controlled [8], targeted 9, 10, sustained [11], and responsive systems 12, 13, 14. The characteristics of MSNs have been studied in depth with respect to their pharmacokinetic and immunological properties, which are major challenges to overcome to realize their potential in the clinic [15]. In this review, we discuss the different characteristics of MSNs and emphasize their involvement in recent advances in different drug delivery systems (DDSs), with a specific focus on their potential biomedical use in chemotherapy and cancer treatment.