New intelligent silicate and organosilicate nanostructures for drug diagnostics and delivery

Project aim: Synthesis of nanomaterials based on mesoporous silicate nanoparticles (MSN) and periodic mesoporous organosilicates (PMO), which would be applicable for simultaneous diagnosis and selective therapy of cancer.

 

About the project: Nanomaterials can be constructed with the ability to induce therapeutic activity under the influence of various stimuli (e.g. change in pH value, action of light or magnetic field, enzyme influence) which enables selective delivery of drugs from nanocarriers, aimed exclusively at cancer tissue. This allows minimizing the negative effects of drugs on healthy tissues, which is further enhanced by the surface functionalization of nanoparticles with target ligands to interact with receptors specific for tumor tissues. Combination therapy against cancer is also being investigated, i.e. therapy with two or more different drugs to prevent the development of cancer resistance to treatment, which is typically a significant barrier to chemotherapy when a single therapeutic agent is used. Therefore, combinations of drugs that have different mechanisms of action against cancer can be used to construct MSN and PMO nanocarriers. The research envisaged by this project enables the development of new therapeutic strategies for cancer, with the aim of improving the results of cancer therapies in clinics.