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Multifunctional Porous Silicon for Therapeutic Drug Delivery and Imaging

Hélder A. Santos, Luis M. Bimbo, Vesa-Pekka Lehto, Anu J. Airaksinen, Jarno Salonen and Jouni Hirvonen
Published:
2011
Research summary:

Major challenges in drug formulation are the poor solid state  stability of drug molecules, poor dissolution/ solubility and/or poor  pharmacokinetic properties (bioavailability), which may lead to unreliable in  vitro-in vivo (IVIV) correlation. To improve current therapeutical  strategies, novel means to deliver poorly water soluble active pharmaceutical  ingredients, as well as to target them to specific sites or cells in the body  are needed. Biomedical applications of porous silicon (PSi) have been actively  investigated during the last 10 years, especially in the areas of drug  delivery and imaging, due to the biocompatibility and biodegradability of PSi  materials, which makes them a potential candidate for controlled drug release. In addition, the unique pore sizes and easily functionalized surface  properties of PSi materials allow high drug payloads and controlled kinetics  from the drug release formulations. Modification of the PSi surface  properties also facilitates biofunctionalization of the surface and the  possibility to attach targeting moieties (e.g., antibodies and peptides),  thus enabling effective targeting of the payload. In this review, we briefly  address the production methodologies of PSi, and we will mainly present and  discuss several examples about the biocompatibility of PSi, the most recent  in vitro and in vivo applications of PSi as a carrier in drug/protein/peptide  delivery and tissue engineering, as well as PSi as a platform for drug  targeting and imaging.

Source:
Santos et al. Current Drug Discovery Technologies, 2011, Vol. 8, No. 3
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