Applications and related mechanisms of molecular sieves in medicine

Molecular sieves are a class of inorganic materials with regular channels or cavities of molecular dimensions. Besides their important industrial uses, molecular sieves have promising applications in medical field due to their special structural features, excellent biological activity, biological stability and biocompatibility. Recently, natural zeolites have been explored to be used as adjuvant in anticancer therapy; as antibacterial agents, silver zeolite and NO-loaded zeolite demonstrate powerful anti-infective activities; with their high adsorption capabilities and tunable surface properties, mesoporous molecular sieves have been tested as drug carriers in drug delivery system; molecular sieves can also be used in other aspects such as blood-clot, thrombolysis and so on. This paper reviews the recent progress on medical applications of molecular sieves. The related mechanisms are discussed as well.