Biodegradable Luminescent Porous Silicon Nanoparticles in Cancer Diagnosis and Therapy

The development of new intelligent drug delivery systems to overcome unwanted side effects and maximize the therapeutic effectiveness of chemotherapy for cancer diseases is one of the main tasks of modern medicine. Active research is being conducted to explore various nanosized drug carriers (nanocarriers) for these purposes.<br/>The use of porous silicon nanoparticles as the basis for nanocarriers is due to the unique properties of these solid-state nanomaterials, such as high biocompatibility [1] and complete biodegradability into non-toxic silicic acid [2]. The porous structure of the nanoparticles, with porosity values reaching up to 80% of their volume, provides a high drug-loading capacity for efficient drug delivery [3]. The simplicity of surface modification methods for the nanoparticles enables specific targeted delivery of various hydrophobic and hydrophilic drugs, radiopharmaceuticals, proteins, peptides, RNA, etc. into cells.<br/>The presence of efficient luminescence in porous silicon nanoparticles allows their utilization as contrast agents for bioimaging of cells and tissues [5]. The properties of porous silicon nanoparticles, acting as photosensitizers [6], sensitizers of high-frequency electromagnetic fields [7] and therapeutic ultrasound [8], provide them with therapeutic functions and the potential for stimuli-triggered drug release from the nanopores of nanocarriers.<br/><i>The research is supported by Russian Science Foundation Grant No. 24-45-20009.</i><br/><b>References:</b><br/>1. Low S.P., Voelcker N. H. "Biocompatibility of porous silicon." Handbook of porous silicon. Springer, 2014. 381-393.<br/>2. Qurrat. S. "Biodegradability of porous silicon." Handbook of Porous Silicon (2014): 395-401.<br/>3. Maximchik, Polina V., et al. "Biodegradable porous silicon nanocontainers as an effective drug carrier for regulation of the tumor cell death pathways." ACS Biomaterials Science & Engineering 5.11 (2019): 6063-6071.<br/>4. Tieu T., et al. "Advances in porous silicon–based nanomaterials for diagnostic and therapeutic applications." Advanced therapeutics 2.1 (2019): 1800095.<br/>5. Tolstik E., et al. "Linear and non-linear optical imaging of cancer cells with silicon nanoparticles." International journal of molecular sciences 17.9 (2016): 1536.<br/>6. Timoshenko V. Yu, et al. "Silicon nanocrystals as photosensitizers of active oxygen for biomedical applications." Jetp Letters 83 (2006): 423-426.<br/>7. Tamarov K.P., et al. "Radio frequency radiation-induced hyperthermia using Si nanoparticle-based sensitizers for mild cancer therapy." Scientific reports 4.1 (2014): 1-7.<br/>8. Osminkina L.A., et al. "Porous silicon nanoparticles as efficient sensitizers for sonodynamic therapy of cancer." Microporous and Mesoporous Materials 210 (2015): 169-175.