University of South Australia, Ian Wark Research Institute, Mawson Lakes, Adelaide, 5095 SA, Australia.
Nanomedicine (Lond). 2011 Sep;6(7):1159-73. doi: 10.2217/nnm.11.29. Epub 2011 Jun 27.
This study explores the use of natural silica-based porous material from diatoms, known as diatomaceous earth, as a drug carrier of therapeutics for implant- and oral-delivery applications.
MATERIALS & METHODS: To prove this concept, two drugs models were used and investigated: a hydrophobic (indomethacin) and hydrophilic (gentamicin).
RESULTS & DISCUSSION: Results show the effectiveness of diatom microcapsules for drug-delivery application, showing 14-22 wt% drug loading capacity and sustained drug release over 2 weeks. Two steps in the drug release from diatom structures were observed: the first, rapid release (over 6 h is attributed to the surface deposited drug) and the second, slow and sustained release over 2 weeks with zero order kinetics.
These results confirm that natural material based on diatom silica can be successfully applied as a drug carrier for both oral and implant drug-delivery applications, offering considerable potential to replace existing synthetic nanomaterials.
本研究探索了天然硅基多孔材料（即硅藻土）在药物载体中的应用，该材料可用于植入和口服给药的治疗。
为了验证这一概念，本研究使用并研究了两种药物模型：一种是疏水性的（吲哚美辛），另一种是亲水性的（庆大霉素）。
结果表明，硅藻微胶囊可有效用于药物传递应用，具有 14-22wt%的载药能力，并能持续释放药物 2 周以上。在硅藻结构中观察到药物释放的两个步骤：第一步是快速释放（6 小时内释放归因于表面沉积的药物），第二步是在 2 周内缓慢且持续释放，符合零级动力学。
这些结果证实，基于硅藻硅的天然材料可成功地用作口服和植入药物传递应用的药物载体，为替代现有合成纳米材料提供了巨大潜力。
