Mesoporous Silicon Particle Formulations for Protected and Sustained Delivery of Therapeutic Peptides

Therapeutic peptides suffer from short half-life, rapid degradation and clearance, and susceptibility to acidic pHs and enzymolysis in the body. The overall objective of this dissertation was to develop novel porous silicon (pSi)-based formulations for improved delivery of therapeutic peptides, e.g., GLP-1R agonists for the treatment of type 2 diabetes. Here, novel strategies including (i) surface chemistry modified nanoporous pSi microparticles (MPs), (ii) pSiMPs/(pluronic F127 and ReGel) composite formulations, and (iii) peptide-conjugated pSiMPs using a pH-responsive linker (1-allyl-2,3-isopropylidene glycerol), were developed to improve the loading efficiency, delivery and release kinetics of therapeutic peptides while maintaining their structural integrity and bioactivity.