Applications of mesoporous material for drug delivery

In recent years mesoporous silica is gaining attention because of their emerging applications in drug delivery.

Since their first appearance in materials science in the 1990s, these inorganic carriers have been successfully used in other areas such as catalysis, purification, and adsorption. The majority of ordered MSNs have two-dimensionally ordered arrays of cylindrical pores of uniform size disposed parallel to each other and separated by thin walls.

Mesoporous silica has stable mesoporous structure, large surface area, good biocompatibility and tailored size of mesopores, all these requisites exhibited promising application as an immediate and controlled drug delivery system. Compared with amorphous colloidal and porous silica, mesoporous silica exhibit higher loading of drugs and provide an immediate release and controlled drug release if modified by functionalization.

Different MSNs like MCM-41, SBA-15, TUD, MCM-50, HMS, MSU-H, etc., have many important properties advantageous to drug delivery applications. The importance of these materials as drug carriers is based on the ability of the silanol groups in the mesopore walls to adsorb molecules of pharmacological interest, followed by an immediate or controlled or modified release of active molecules. Silanol groups on the pore walls are also susceptible to undergoing a chemical modification with a large variety of organic groups through a functionalization process.

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