Thesis

Toxicity and drug delivery ability of bio-inspired silica nanoparticles

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Awarding institution
  • University of Strathclyde
Date of award
  • 2014
Thesis identifier
  • T13958
Qualification Level
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Department, School or Faculty
Abstract
  • Silica nanoparticles are already being used for a number of diagnostic and therapeutic applications. This work focused on the use of bio-inspired silica as a potential drug delivery agent and the toxic effect produced due to their small size. Using two bio-inspired drug encapsulation methods and a range of amines the encapsulation and release profiles of hydrophilic Calcein and hydrophobic Nile Red, Canthin-6-one and Amphotericin B molecules are explored. The change in charge as an effect of the two different methods as well as the amine was also investigated along with investigating a solution to avoid particle aggregation. The characteristics of the nanoparticles such as charge, size and bond ratios were examined using a range of techniques such as ΞΆ potential, AFM and FTIR spectroscopy and thermal transitions were measured using DSC. With a significant difference in the molecule release based on the formulation method, this project shows that bio-inspired silica nanoparticles can be useful for a variety of drugs and the release can be controllable using different amines as well as different formulation methods. Thus allowing the design of tailored drug delivery systems. Further work will need to be completed to investigate more amines to see if there is an overall significance with the amines used. Although there is no correlation between amine and method with the charge of the particles there also does not seem to be an effect using DCP to avoid aggregation. The observation that bio-inspired silica as a drug delivery system are less toxic than their current counterparts as well as the additional benefits such as a more economical synthesis and ease of functionalization strengthens the argument for their use in biomedical applications.
Resource Type
DOI
Date Created
  • 2014
Former identifier
  • 1217353

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