title: Porous silicon for drug delivery applications and theranostics: recent advances, critical review and perspectives.
abstract: Porous silicon (pSi) engineered by electrochemical etching has been used as a drug delivery vehicle to address the intrinsic limitations of traditional therapeutics. Biodegradability, biocompatibility, and optoelectronic properties make pSi a unique candidate for developing biomaterials for theranostics and photodynamic therapies. This review presents an updated overview about the recent therapeutic systems based on pSi, with a critical analysis on the problems and opportunities that this technology faces as well as highlighting pSi's growing potential. Areas covered: Recent progress in pSi-based research includes drug delivery systems, including biocompatibility studies, drug delivery, theranostics, and clinical trials with the most relevant examples of pSi-based systems presented here. A critical analysis about the technical advantages and disadvantages of these systems is provided along with an assessment on the challenges that this technology faces, including clinical trials and investors' support. Expert opinion: pSi is an outstanding material that could improve existing drug delivery and photodynamic therapies in different areas, paving the way for developing advanced theranostic nanomedicines and incorporating payloads of therapeutics with imaging capabilities. However, more extensive in-vivo studies are needed to assess the feasibility and reliability of this technology for clinical practice. The technical and commercial challenges that this technology face are still uncertain.
authors.affiliation: a School of Chemical Engineering , The University of Adelaide , Adelaide , Australia.
authors.forename: Tushar
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kumeria
authors.affiliation: b ARC Centre of Excellence in Convergent Bio-Nano Science and Technology, Future Industries Institute , University of South Australia , Mawson Lakes , Australia.
authors.forename: Steven J P
authors.initials: SJP
authors.lastname: McInnes
authors.affiliation: a School of Chemical Engineering , The University of Adelaide , Adelaide , Australia.|c Faculty of Pharmacy , Assiut University , Assiut , Egypt.
authors.forename: Shaheer
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Maher
authors.affiliation: a School of Chemical Engineering , The University of Adelaide , Adelaide , Australia.|d Institute for Photonics and Advanced Sensing (IPAS) , The University of Adelaide , Adelaide , Australia.|e ARC Centre of Excellence for Nanoscale BioPhotonics (CNBP) , The University of Adelaide , Adelaide , Australia.
authors.forename: Abel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Santos
mesh_terms: D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D016062:Porosity; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*; D000068936:Theranostic Nanomedicine / Q000379:methods*
chemical_list: D012825:Silicon
keywords: Porous silicon; drug delivery; imaging; theranostics; therapy; toxicity