Recent Patents on the Synthesis and Application of Silica Nanoparticles for Drug Delivery

FOGLIA M LUCIA; ALVAREZ GISELA SOLANGE; PAOLO N. CATALANO; MEBERT ANDREA MATHILDE; DÍAZ LUIS EDUARDO; CORADIN THIBAUD; DESIMONE MARTIN FEDERICO

Recent patents on biotechnology

Bentham Science Publishers

Año: 2011 vol. 5 p. 54 - 61

1872-2083

Drug delivery systems are designed to improve therapy efficacy as well as patient compliance. This could be accomplished by specifically targeting a medication intact to its active site, therefore reducing side-effects and enabling high local drug concentrations. Silica nanoparticles have gained ground in the biomedical field for their biocompatibility and biodegradability, being themselves inert and stable, thus enabling a variety of formulation designs for application in the pharmaceutical industry. This paper is a review of the recent patents on the applications of silica nanoparticles for drug delivery and their preparation. The review will focus on the different techniques available to obtain silica nanoparticles with variable morphology and their drug targeting applications, providing an overview of silica particles synthesis described in the literature.