ABSTRACT
The profound understanding of the physicochemical characteristics of nanomaterials encourages significant nanotechnological innovations in the contexts of functionality, selective targetability, biosafety, and responsiveness. The excellent responses of silica-based nanomedicines were recognized due to their inherent facile synthesis process, tunable nanoparticle size and shape, flexible surface functionality, tissue penetration ability, higher colloidal stability, and biocompatibility. A closer look at silica nanomaterial-based biomedical applications reveals that despite the size and shape of nanoparticles, surface functionality plays a crucial role in the complete fabrication of the nanomedicine, determining the stability of the nanoparticles in the biofluids and the extent of the therapeutics and diagnostics potential. Considering this fact, the present review elaborates on the various routes of silica nanomaterial synthesis and their morphological and structural characterizations. Covalent functionalization includes the co-condensation and post-synthesis grafting method and the non-covalent chemistry-based surface functionalization of silica nanostructures. The surface functionalization of silica nanostructures dramatically improves the drug loading and release profile, the bioavailability of the potential drug to the target site, the penetration and retention effect, and the efficacy. The surface chemistry of silica nanostructures enables smart and stimuli-responsive delivery for neurotherapeutics and significantly advances the biosensing and imaging modalities.
