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Review
. 2021 Dec 17;13(12):2179.
doi: 10.3390/pharmaceutics13122179.

Chronology of Global Success: 20 Years of Prof Vallet-Regí Solving Questions

Miguel Manzano  1   2
Affiliations
Review

Chronology of Global Success: 20 Years of Prof Vallet-Regí Solving Questions

Miguel Manzano. Pharmaceutics. .

Abstract

Twenty years ago, a group of bold scientists led by Prof Vallet-Regí suggested for the first time the use of mesoporous materials as potential drug delivery systems. Without knowing it; these pioneers unleashed the beast of creativity around the world because that original idea has been the inspiration of hundreds of scientific groups for the design of many versatile delivery systems based on mesoporous materials. Because the dream is not the destination, it is the journey, the present review aims to summarise the chain of events that catapulted a small and young research team from the grassroots of academia to the elite of the Biomedical Engineering field.

Keywords: controlled release; mesoporous silica nanoparticles; silica-based mesoporous materials; stimuli-responsive drug delivery.

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Top: Schematic representation of the original idea of loading drugs into the network of pores of mesoporous silica materials. Bottom left corner: Cites distribution along the last 20 years of the original communication where MSMs were presented as drug delivery systems, adapted from [9], published by American Chemical Society, 2001. Bottom right corner: Cites distribution of one of the most important reviews on this topic reported on Angewandte Chemie after only 6 years of the original research paper, adapted from [10], published by Wiley-VCH, 2007.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Top left corner: Silica dissolution profile of pure MSMs in physiological medium (Phosphate Buffer Solution, PBS); top right corner: transmission electron microscopy images of the degradation process of MSMs in PBS at different time points; Bottom: transmission electron microscopy images of the degradation of MSNs in PBS at different time points. Adapted with the permission from [51], published by Springer Nature, 2017.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Schematic representation of loaded mesoporous silica nanoparticles surrounded by the different stimuli, both internal and external, that could be used to trigger the cargo release.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Schematic representation of the building blocks assemble for developing a stimuli-responsive smart nanocarrier. MSNs: nanocarrier platform; Doxorubicin: cytotoxic drug; self-immolative polymer: redox-responsive polymer; poly(ethylene) glycol: stabilising agent in physiological media; Histidine: endosomal escape; Biotin: active targeting agent.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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