RT Journal Article T1 Protein delivery based on uncoated and chitosan-coated mesoporous silicon microparticles A1 Pastor, Ester L. A1 Matveeva, Eugenia A1 Valle Gallego, Ángela A1 Goycoolea, Francisco M. A1 García Fuentes, Marcos K1 Porous silicon K1 Electrochemical pore formation K1 Chitosan K1 Insulin K1 BSA K1 Protein AB Mesoporous silicon is a biocompatible, biodegradable material that is receiving increased attention for pharmaceutical applications due to its extensive specific surface. This feature enables to load a variety of drugs in mesoporous silicon devices by simple adsorption-based procedures. In this work, we have addressed the fabrication and characterization of two new mesoporous silicon devices prepared by electrochemistry and intended for protein delivery, namely: (i) mesoporous silicon microparticles and (ii) chitosan-coated mesoporous silicon microparticles. Both carriers were investigated for their capacity to load a therapeutic protein (insulin) and a model antigen (bovine serum albumin) by adsorption. Our results show that mesoporous silicon microparticles prepared by electrochemical methods present moderate affinity for insulin and high affinity for albumin. However, mesoporous silicon presents an extensive capacity to load both proteins, leading to systems were protein could represent the major mass fraction of the formulation. The possibility to form a chitosan coating on the microparticles surface was confirmed both qualitatively by atomic force microscopy and quantitatively by a colorimetric method. Mesoporous silicon microparticles with mean pore size of 35 nm released the loaded insulin quickly, but not instantaneously. This profile could be slowed to a certain extent by the chitosan coating modification. With their high protein loading, their capacity to provide a controlled release of insulin over a period of 60-90 min, and the potential mucoadhesive effect of the chitosan coating, these composite devices comprise several features that render them interesting candidates as transmucosal protein delivery systems. PB Elsevier SN 1873-4367 YR 2011 FD 2011 LK http://hdl.handle.net/10347/9864 UL http://hdl.handle.net/10347/9864 LA eng NO Pastor E., Matveeva E., Valle-Gallego A., Goycoolea F.M. and Garcia-Fuentes M. (2011) Protein delivery based on uncoated and chitosan-coated mesoporous silicon microparticles. Colloid Surface B, 88, 601-609 DS Minerva RD 28 abr 2026