Mesoporous Silica Nanoparticles: Drug Delivery Vehicles for Antidiabetic Molecules

Abstract

AbstractMesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) are promising nanomaterials that are widely used in biomedical applications like drug delivery, diagnosis, bio‐sensing and cell tracking. MSNs have been investigated meticulously in the drug‐delivery field due to their unique chemical and pharmacokinetic properties, such as highly ordered mesopores, high surface area and pore volume, tuneable pore size, stability, surface functionalisation, and biocompatibility. MSN‐based nanocomposites have been used to deliver therapeutic molecules like insulin, GLP‐1, exenatide, DPP‐4 inhibitor and plasmid‐containing GLP‐1 genes for managing diabetes mellitus for the last decade. The functionalisation properties of MSNs make them substantially capable of the co‐delivery, controlled delivery and stimuli‐responsive delivery of antidiabetic drugs. This review focuses on the delivery of antidiabetic therapeutics with special emphasis on the functionalisation of MSNs and stimuli‐responsive delivery.