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. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2012 Oct 18.
Published in final edited form as: Acc Chem Res. 2011 Jun 15;44(10):903–913. doi: 10.1021/ar200018x

Figure 1.

Figure 1

Timeline showing the evolution of MSNPs, where each circle represents a landmark MSNP with the solid support and stimulus used to release the cargo, and which studies the MSNPs were subjected to. The research began in 2001 with the demonstration that supramolecular machines operate on and within glass in a manner similar to that in solution, and progressed to incorporating a variety of machines both on and in SNPs. Several kinds of stimuli have been used to release cargo molecules from MSNPs, including redox-activation (2004), increasing the basicity (2006), irradiating (2007), and increasing the acidity (2009). All MSNPs have been subjected to release experiments in solution to confirm their operation, and some have progressed to in vitro (2008) and in vivo (2010) testing.