Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) are attracting increasing interest for potential biomedical applications. With tailored mesoporous structure, huge surface area and pore volume, selective surface functionality, as well as morphology control, MSNs exhibit high loading capacity for therapeutic agents and controlled release properties if modified with stimuli-responsive groups, polymers or proteins. In this review article, the applications of MSNs in pharmaceutics to improve drug bioavailability, reduce drug toxicity, and deliver with cellular targetability are summarized. Particularly, the exciting progress in the development of MSNs-based effective delivery systems for poorly soluble drugs, anticancer agents, and therapeutic genes are highlighted.
Keywords: AO, acridine orange; APTES, 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane; APTMS, amino propyl trimethoxysilane; BCL-2, B-cell lymphoma-2; BCS, Biopharmaceutical Classification System; Bio-TEM, biological transmission electron microscopy; C dots, Cornell dots; CMC, critical micelle concentration; CPT, camptothecin; CTAB, cetyltrimethyl ammonium bromide; Cancer therapy; EPR, enhanced permeability and retention; FDA, Food and Drug Administration; GI, gastrointestinal; GNRs@mSiO2, mesoporous silica-encapsulated gold nanorods; Gene delivery; LHRH, luteinising-hormone releasing hormone; MDR, multi-drug resistance; MRP1, multidrug resistance protein 1; MSN-Dox-G2, Dox-loaded and G2 PAMAM-modified MSNs; MSNs, mesoporous silica nanoparticles; MSNs-HA, hyaluronic acid-conjugated MSNs; MSNs-RGD/TAT, RGD/TAT peptide-modified MSNs; MSNs-TAT, TAT peptide-modified MSNs; MSNs@PDA-PEG-FA, poly(ethylene glycol)-folic acid-functionalized polydopamine-modified MSNs; MTT, 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide; Mesoporous silica nanoparticles; Multidrug resistance; NIR, near-infrared; P-gp, P-glycoprotein; PAMAM, polyamidoamine; PDEAEMA, poly (2-(diethylamino)ethylmethacrylate); PDMAEMA, poly(2-(dimethylamino)ethylmethacrylate); PEG400, polyethylene glycol 400; PEI, polyethyleneimine; PLL, poly-l-lysine; PTX, paclitaxel; Poorly soluble drug; Q-MSNs, quercetin encapsulated MSNs; RGD, arginine-glycine-aspartate; TAT, trans-activating transcriptor; TMB, 1,3,5-trimethybenzene; pDNA, plasmid DNA.