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Review
. 2023 Feb:210:105488.
doi: 10.1016/j.antiviral.2022.105488. Epub 2022 Dec 22.

Current status of silica-based nanoparticles as therapeutics and its potential as therapies against viruses

Affiliations
Review

Current status of silica-based nanoparticles as therapeutics and its potential as therapies against viruses

Danny Jian Hang Tng et al. Antiviral Res. 2023 Feb.

Abstract

In the past decade, interest in nanoparticles for clinical indications has been steadily gaining traction. Most recently, Lipid Nanoparticles (LNP) have been used successfully to construct the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccines for rapid pandemic response. Similarly, silica is another nanomaterial which holds much potential to create nanomedicines against pathogens of interest. One major advantage of silica-based nanoparticles is its crystalline and highly ordered structure, which can be specifically tuned to achieve the desired properties needed for clinical applications. Increasingly, clinical research has shown the potential of silica nanoparticles not only as an antiviral, but also its ability as a delivery system for antiviral small molecules and vaccines against viruses. Silica has an excellent biosafety profile and has been tested in several early phase clinical trials since 2012, demonstrating good tolerability and minimal reported side effects. In this review, we discuss the clinical development of silica nanoparticles to date and identify the gaps and potential pitfalls in its path to clinical translation.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Silica Nanoparticles: (A) Solid silica nanoparticles (SSN)* inset showing Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) image#, (B) Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN)* inset showing TEM image# and (C) Loading of MSN with various components for delivery to fulfil different biomedical applications*. (*Figure created with biorender.com. #Häffne et al., ACS Nano, 15, 4, 2021; licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.).
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Antiviral mechanism effects of MSNs: (A) Schematic diagram of silica nanoparticle virion deactivation via surface charge interactions*, (B) Inactivated virion unable to interact with cellular target to initiate infection*, (C) Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) of Influenza virons before incubation with silica nanoparticles# and (D) TEM image of Influenza virions after inactivation by silica nanoparticles, arrows indicate the virions#. (*Created with biorender.com. #Osminkina et al., Bioact Mater, 7, 39–46, 2022; licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-NC-ND license.).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Variations of MSN/Silica for drug delivery: (A) Mesoporous silica (MSN)*, (B) Silica platelets*, (C) Hydrogel coated silica*, (D) Liposomal silica*, (E) Polymer coated silica*, (F) Antibody/Antigen modified silica*, (G) Non-specific distribution of Amine MSN (AMSN)# and (H) Targeted delivery to mice liver using galactose modified AMSN (Gal-MSN)#. (*Created with biorender.com. #Reprinted (adapted) with permission from Mukherjee et al., ACS Appl. Bio Mater, 3, 11, 2020; copyright (2020) American Chemical Society.).

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