Protegiendo fármacos con nanomateriales inteligentes

Abstract

Human health is constantly the subject of new threats, demanding for efficient and fastacting drugs. Nowadays, new ways for delivering and dosing drugs are under investigation, and nanomaterials have become a major research field. Several materials have been studied for drug transportation and dosage: polymer nanoparticles, conjugated polymers, liposomes, micelles, dendrites, carbon nanotubes, gold nanoparticles or nanocages of different elements. However, in many cases, these materials have not been as efficient as expected. In this work we make evident the need for developing new materials with specific properties, such as the MOFs (metal organic frameworks). The MOF are a group of materials with properties that can be tailored to suit specific applications. MOF design involves a metal center and an organic ligand, which provide the required physicochemical properties, depending on the drug to be encapsulated, for latter release, in the organism. MOF synthesis can be simple and low-cost; desired properties can be introduced during the synthesis procedure, or after it, by functionalization. Because of these advantages, MOF may work better than other materials.