ROS responsive mesoporous silica nanoparticles for smart drug delivery: A review

Reactive Oxygen Species (ROS) plays an important role in biological metabolism and intercellular signalling pathways in living organisms. Researchers have been driving their attention towards active chemical species through variety of advances in nanotechnology utilizing appropriate nanomaterial showing some excellent ROS regulating properties in biological system to contribute in novel upcoming therapeutic methodology. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have received more attention because of recent promising applications in the field of nanomedicine and also due to their intrinsic properties like large pore size, increased surface area, stable aqueous dispersion, excellent biocompatibility and biodegradability. Increased ROS levels results in drug release at a specific target site i.e., disease site with either endogenous stimuli such as pH, glutathione (GSH), high glucose or exogeneous stimuli such as photodynamic therapy (PDT) responses for therapeutic purposes. The present review has focused upon ROS responsive therapeutic MSNs based on both endogenous stimuli and exogenous stimuli. The ROS responsive MSNs exhibit enhanced therapeutic efficacy with reduced side effects as compared to the traditional systems. We have also reviewed the latest development in the field of ROS-based MSNs and discussed their design concepts with applications in various diseases. Further translational research in this direction is required. [Display omitted] •ROS plays an important role in biological metabolism and intercellular signalling pathways.•MSNs have received major attention due to promising applications in nanomedicine.•ROS responsive MSNs-based drug delivery is a novel approach for drug delivery and therapeutics.•The dual responsive system of ROS and endogenous/exogenous stimuli has been demonstrated as a promising approach.•These ROS responsive MSNs exhibit enhanced therapeutic efficacy with reduced side effects.