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Updated: May 9, 2026

Designing Porous Silicon Films as Carriers of Nerve Growth Factor
Published on: January 25, 2019
Porous silicon advances in drug delivery and immunotherapy
David J Savage1, Xuewu Liu, Steven A Curley
1Department of Nanomedicine, The Methodist Hospital Research Institute, 6670 Bertner Avenue, Houston, TX 77030, USA; MD Anderson Cancer Center, Department of Surgical Oncology, 1515 Holcombe Blvd #444, Houston, TX, USA; The University of Texas Medical School at Houston, 6431 Fannin, Houston, TX, USA.
Abstract:
Biomedical applications of porous silicon include drug delivery, imaging, diagnostics and immunotherapy. This review summarizes new silicon particle fabrication techniques, dynamics of cellular transport, advances in the multistage vector approach to drug delivery, and the use of porous silicon as immune adjuvants. Recent findings support superior therapeutic efficacy of the multistage vector approach over single particle drug delivery systems in mouse models of ovarian and breast cancer. With respect to vaccine development, multivalent presentation of pathogen-associated molecular patterns on the particle surface creates powerful platforms for immunotherapy, with the porous matrix able to carry both antigens and immune modulators.
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