Nano-Porous Silica Aerogels as Promising Biomaterials for Oral Drug Delivery of Paclitaxel

Abstract

Not only dose oral administration have the highest safety, convenience and patient compliance, but also can improve patients' quality of life and reduce health care costs in many cases when compared to the parenteral route. However, many drugs, especially most anticancer drugs such as paclitaxel (PTX), are not orally bioavailable, which is attributed to low aqueous solubility, poor intestinal permeability, and the high level of P-glycoprotein (P-gp) efflux. In this study, we developed a nano-porous silica aerogel delivery system for oral administration of PTX that improved the bioavailability, reduced the side effects of the drug and inhibited tumor growth. The advantages of nano-porous silica aerogel include very high porosities, vast specific surface areas, high drug-loading rate, high biological safety, excellent biocompatibility, and biological inertia, which can also be applied to a variety of drugs. The aerogel delivery system is a universal pharmaceutical system that has huge potential in the field of pharmacy.