Emerging roles of mesoporous silica nanoparticles in personalized medicine: revolutionizing therapy and diagnosis — a comprehensive review

Abstract

Personalized medicine represents a novel strategy in modern healthcare, emphasizing the customization of treatments to align with the unique genetic, molecular, and clinical profiles of individual patients. This review explores the intersection of personalized medicine and nanotechnology, with a particular focus on mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs) as versatile platforms for precision applications. Owing to their high surface area, tunable pore architecture, and flexible surface functionalization, MSNs offer distinct advantages over conventional nanocarriers, enabling high drug-loading capacity, controlled release, and multifunctional integration. Recent advances highlight the use of MSNs in personalized cancer therapy, including targeted drug delivery, gene and gene-silencing co-delivery, and combination treatment strategies, as well as in diagnostics, biosensing, imaging, and theranostic systems. The integration of MSNs with molecular targeting ligands and imaging modalities further enables real-time monitoring of therapeutic responses and adaptive treatment optimization. In addition to summarizing emerging and transformative MSN-based applications, this review also discusses key challenges for clinical translation, including biosafety, scalable manufacturing, and regulatory considerations. Overall, MSNs are presented as a promising and evolving nanoplatform with the potential to revolutionize personalized diagnosis and therapy.