Porous Silicon and Polymer Nanocomposites for Delivery of Peptide Nucleic Acids as Anti-MicroRNA Therapies.

Self-assembled polymer/porous silicon nanocomposites overcome intracellular and systemic barriers for in vivo application of peptide nucleic acid (PNA) anti-microRNA therapeutics. Porous silicon (PSi) is leveraged as a biodegradable scaffold with high drug-cargo-loading capacity. Functionalization with a diblock polymer improves PSi nanoparticle colloidal stability, in vivo pharmacokinetics, and intracellular bioavailability through endosomal escape, enabling PNA to inhibit miR-122 in vivo.

Shape-engineered multifunctional porous silicon nanoparticles by direct imprinting.

A versatile and scalable method for fabricating shape-engineered nano- and micrometer scale particles from mesoporous silicon (PSi) thin films is presented. This approach, based on the direct imprinting of porous substrates (DIPS) technique, facilitates the generation of particles with arbitrary shape, ranging in minimum dimension from approximately 100 nm to several micrometers, by carrying out high-pressure (>200 MPa) direct imprintation, followed by electrochemical etching of a sub-surface perforation layer and ultrasonication. PSi particles (PSPs) with a variety of geometries have been produced in quantities sufficient for biomedical applications (≫10 µg). Because the stamps can be reused over 150 times, this process is substantially more economical and efficient than the use of electron beam lithography and reactive ion etching for the fabrication of nanometer-scale PSPs directly. The versatility of this fabrication method is demonstrated by loading the DIPS-imprinted PSPs with a therapeutic peptide nucleic acid drug molecule, and by vapor deposition of an Au coating to facilitate the use of PSPs as a photothermal contrast agent.