Smart drug delivery systems designed to improve inflammatory bowel disease therapy

Abstract

This PhD thesis entitled "Smart drug delivery systems designed to improve Inflammatory Bowel Disease therapy" is focused on the design, synthesis, characterization and in vivo evaluation of several Colon Drug Delivery Systems (CDDS) using hybrid mesoporous silica microparticles as scaffolds containing molecular gates. In conclusion, the studies shown in this Thesis demonstrate that mesoporous silica materials in combination with responsive molecular gates have great potential in the design and preparation of new CDDS to improve the therapeutic options available for IBD. The possibility to adapt the cargo and the molecular gate makes mesoporous silica support especially appealing for similar controlled drug delivery applications in the biomedical field. We hope that the obtained results could inspire the development of new innovative smart drug delivery systems in this or other fields.