Nanomedicine has introduced significant innovations in clinical practice. Mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) with adaptable surface modifications allow accommodation of various therapeutic agents for targeted drug delivery. Dexamethasone is an anti-inflammatory drug which may be used in lowering mortality rates in severe COVID-19 cases.
A simple and smart drug controlled delivery system is developed in this work. This study aims to synthesize functionalized MSNs to achieve prospective loading efficiency of dexamethasone and controlled drug release with constant rate. Synthesis of MSN is verified with X-ray diffractometer. Grafted functional groups with amine and chitosan on MSN are characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The amounts of dexamethasone loading and cumulative release are quantified by ultraviolet–visible spectrophotometer. The pure MSNs present 27.9% dexamethasone loading. The chitosan capped MSNs promote dexamethasone loading efficiency to 53.7%. The release of dexamethasone in the unmodified MSNs reveals early and fast, which shows 50% in 12 hours and 90% after 5 days. The release pattern of dexamethasone in chitosan capped MSNs is constant and delayed, which reveals 19.7% after 5 days. Taken together, this research provides the potential of chitosan capped MSNs as an efficient nanoparticle-based triggered drug delivery system.