Biomineralization process generating hybrid nano- and micro-carriers

Nowadays the steadily increasing need of more effective and customized therapies is pushing the scientific community to intensive efforts aiming at investigating and developing new biomaterials with ability of cell instruction and more targeted drug release to prevent undesired collateral effects. Biomineralization process is a novel bioinspired synthesis approach where the activation of various physicochemical, morphological, and ultrastructural control mechanisms drive the assembling and 3D organization of organic macromolecules, whereas constraining the heterogeneous nucleation, crystal growth, and orientation of inorganic nanophases, similarly as occurring in natural structures, including human bones. On the other side, the need of smart biomaterials with mini-invasive activation mechanisms are pushing scientists to develop optimized nanoparticles and carriers with enhanced biocompatibility and ability to release their payload on demand. In this respect magnetic activation is raising increasing interest and might be a breakthrough approach in nanomedicine in the incoming years. A promising boost to this research field may be offered by a recently developed iron-doped apatite nanophase presenting excellent biocompatibility, resorbability, and superparamagnetic properties enabling remote activation. This phase can be also heterogeneously nucleated onto assembling organic molecules, by biomineralization thus developing innovative hybrid micro- and nano-carriers. These novel biomaterials demonstrated good cytocompatibility, designed shape and size, and tailored magnetization, thus being extremely promising for smart and personalized therapeutic applications in bone tissue engineering and nanomedicine.