Fumed silica in pharmaceuticals

Fumed silica is an important new high-tech ultra-fine inorganic material, which is widely used in industry and life. In the medical, fumed silica also play an important role. It’s mainly used in the medical silicone materials and drugs. And most of the medical silicone supplies will add fumed silica.

Generally, the medical infusion tubes, drainage tubes and oxygen masks, even various human cannulas such as intravenous cannula, urinary catheters, blood vessels and various artificial organ tissue substitutes are all use silicone materials. In the medical cosmetic industry, breast implants and various fillers also widely use silicone gel.

Silicone in the medical industry

Silicone materials can be widely used in the medical industry without the full support of fumed silica. If compare silicone materials to angels in the medical industry, then fumed silica is the wings of the angels.

In the pharmaceuticals, fumed silica also has its unique medical properties

1.High stability of physiological & chemical

As we all know, it must meet certain requirements as a drug absorbent, which the most important key is the physiological & chemical stability, especially in the organic medium of the gastrointestinal chemical stability. As an absorbent it should not be dissolved or absorbed when contacting with biological fluids (including wound secretions, digestive tract components). A large number of test results show that: highly dispersed fumed silica lacks absorption when used externally in the digestive tract and wounds, which may be because of its low solubility in the pH range of 2 to 8, or other mechanisms that prevent silica from penetrating the intestinal wall, that cause no silica-related changes are found in the blood when taken and used in large quantities. Therefore, it can well meet the requirements for using as a drug or drug carrier.

 

2.The high water absorption of the surface

The average particle size of fumed silica is about 15 nm, and it has special properties of nanomaterials. The presence of a large number of hydroxyl groups and some atoms in unsaturated state on its surface makes it very easy to adsorb water and charged substances, forming slurry and gel layers of different depths on the surface. The thickness of the layers depends on the surface properties of the particles and the composition of the adsorbed substances. Based on the property of fumed silica, we can use it in skin clinics to make desiccants or some secretions to eliminate edema and reduce inflammatory, and we can also use it in patients with diarrhea.

 

3. High protein adsorption

The adsorption of proteins on fumed silica is influenced by the surface-active point (hydroxyl groups, unsaturated silicon atoms with an acceptable charge and oxygen atoms), and it can be explained by a model of by interaction between a multi-electrode and a charged silica surface. According to this model, the affinity and electrostatic force between the protein and the fumed silica surface determine the maximum adsorption near the protein isoelectric point. The adsorption can be completed in a short period of time, and the adsorption rate is independent of the type of protein, which is better than other corresponding adsorbents commonly used in medicine.

There are special interactions between human plasma and highly dispersed fumed silica. The affinity between fumed silica and lipoproteins is much greater than that between fumed silica and non-lipoproteins. It can be used as an adsorbent to adsorb food fats and lipid components (mainly composed of proteins, phospholipids, bile, etc.) produced during hepatic and intestinal circulation. According to this property, highly dispersible fumed silica can be used to prepare lipid-lowering drugs to reduce the level of sterols in patients' blood serum.

The high protein adsorption properties of highly dispersed fumed silica can also be used to immobilize and remove bacterial toxins, pathogenic immune complexes, necrotic tissue breakdown products, and other harmful proteins produced by organisms.

 

4. Strong interaction with microorganisms

The strong interaction between highly dispersed fumed silica and pathogenic bacteria such as Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus, and Aspergillus can immobilize most microorganisms in a short period of time, and the number of immobilizations is independent of the type of microorganism. Firstly, the particle size of fumed silica (7-40nm) is smaller than that of microorganisms (1-10um), which makes fumed silica very easy to aggregate, fully increasing its adsorption capacity, and can make microbial units aggregate into spherical aggregates, which is superior to general pharmaceutical adsorbents; secondly, after microorganisms come into contact with fumed silica, their adsorption of This explains why fumed silica has good clinical efficacy.

It shows that highly dispersed fumed silica has great potential for using in medicine due to its high stability of bio-chemical and special surface adsorption properties. It can be used not only as a local topical agent for the treatment of inflamed wounds, eczema, psoriasis, allergic dermatitis, but also as an internal adsorbent for the treatment of pancreatic material, intestinal infections, pleurisy, cellulitis, hepatitis, chronic sclerosing injury lung disease and obstetrical and gynecological inflammation and it can also be used for the treatment of tumor patients, reducing the toxic side effects of radiotherapy.

 

Therefore, its application in the medical field will gradually deepen, and has a huge market prospect in the future.

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Post time: Nov-19-2021