Stimuli-responsive silica silanol conjugates: strategic nanoarchitectonics in targeted drug delivery

The design of novel drug delivery systems is exceptionally critical in disease treatments. Among the existing drug delivery systems, mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) have shown profuse promise owing to their structural stability, tunable morphologies/sizes, and ability to load different payload chemistry. Significantly, the presence of surface silanol groups enables functionalization with relevant drugs, imaging, and targeting agents, promoting their utility and popularity among researchers. Stimuli-responsive silanol conjugates have been developed as a novel, more effective way to conjugate, deliver, and release therapeutic drugs on demand and precisely to the selected location. Therefore, it is urgent to summarize the current understanding and the surface silanols’ role in making MSN a versatile drug delivery platform. This review provides an analytical understanding of the surface silanols, chemistry, identification methods, and their property–performance correlation. The chemistry involved in converting surface silanols to a stimuli-responsive silica delivery system by endogenous/exogenous stimuli, including pH, redox potential, temperature, and hypoxia, is discussed in depth. Different chemistries for converting surface silanols to stimuli-responsive bonds are discussed in the context of drug delivery. The critical discussion is culminated by outlining the challenges in identifying silanols’ role and overcoming the limitations in synthesizing stimuli-responsive mesoporous silica-based drug delivery systems.