Effectiveness of Mesoporous Bioglass in Drug Delivery

Since the invention of bioactive glass 50 years ago, it has become a versatile material used in healthcare in a variety of applications and compositions. Bioactive glass has shown superior capabilities of drug delivery compared to traditional carriers. For example, time-released medications are less likely to reach toxic levels, while delivering a specific, therapeutic dose to a localized area. The objective of this paper is to investigate the properties and effectiveness of mesoporous bioglass (MBG) as a drug delivery carrier. A literature review of various polymer coated 45S5 Bioglass ^® loaded with vancomycin was analyzed to determine their drug release response. Since MBG continues to be a preferred carrier with numerous combinations; size, coating, doped with ions, medications, and other physical conditions, there is a need to understand more fully their effectiveness. For a given loading efficiency of 5-15% the burst release % for day 1 remained 15-30% for given surface area, pore volume and pore size of 3.5 to 5 nm. The mechanical properties summarized in this paper are compared with the drug release kinetics. In general, for a given fracture toughness and compressive strength, the ratio of Young’s modulus to bending strength around 250 determined poor apatite mineralization resulting in slow release. As this ratio increased the apatite mineralization and dissolution rate increased. Doping MBG with ions enhanced the drug efficacy to treat a particular condition, for example, silver. Polymer coated MBG exhibited slower dissolution rate than uncoated MBG. Dissolution time increased with the drug loading rate, drying time of the coating, multi-layer coats of drug and polymer for the drug studied in this paper to more than 50%.