Sustained Protein Release from a Core-Shell Drug Carrier System Comprised of Mesoporous Nanoparticles and an Injectable Hydrogel.

The manufacture of a biocompatible carrier for controlled delivery of bioactive compounds is described. This carrier is composed of a mesoporous silica nanoparticle as core that is homogenously distributed in an injectable hydrogel. For the synthesis of nanoparticles, a one step sol-gel method is developed to produce pores with the range of 100 nm. BMP2 and Fluorescein-conjugated bovine serum albumin is used as proteinaceous agents for measuring release, and is loaded into mesoporous silica nanoparticles at the optimum conditions of 48 h incubation period using 1:10 ratio of protein to nanoparticles. The release of proteins from either mesoporous nanoparticles or hydrogel individually involves a burst release stage, however the release from the core/shell carrier designed in this study follows a zero order kinetic. In summary, this biomaterial may be favorable for delivery of bioactive compounds such as BMP2 for a range of applications including bone tissue regeneration.