Synthesis, characterization and perspectives of mesoporous silica-based nanoplatforms as drug delivery systems

Abstract

"Mesoporous silica-based nanomaterials have been considered as potential carriers for drug delivery applications. Their main advantages are: i) tunable pore size, ii) high surface area, iii) functional surface chemistry and iv) biocompatibility. The internal and external domains of mesoporous silica allow encapsulating a wide variety of drugs and functionalizing its surface with specific molecules in the perspective of targeting medicine. In this work, we synthetized and characterized the silica-based mesostructures known as SBA-15 and MSF. We highlighted their pore size distribution, functional surface chemistry and loading capacity using valproic acid as probe. We observed that the SBA-15 sample has an average pore size of about 6 nm, while the modified MSF sample has an average pore size of 13 nm. These are encouraging results demonstrating that the use of swelling agents allows increasing the pore size distribution and thus the applicability of MSF as drug carries. The surface functionalization, using liposomes, was successfully achieved. This last may play a key role in the presence of living cells, enhancing the uptake. The more efficient material was the MSF, which encapsulated a higher VPA amount. Hence, the loading capacity was found pore size dependent. This work is the proof-of-concept of the use of MSF as biocompatible and effective drug delivery system."