Preparation and study of 5-Fluorouracil loaded nanoparticles based on hydrophobic modified carboxymethyl chitosan

فاقد چكيده فارسي

Purpose of this article is developing chitosan nanoparticles with targeting ability. Chitosan is a cationic polysaccharide with great properties and so is considered as an attractive biopolymer. However, chitosan shows its antibacterial activity only in acidic environment so water-soluble chitosan derivatives such as carboxymethyl chitosan could decrease this limitation. Modified chitosan with hydrophobic functional groups such as folate (FA) not only is able to make self-assembled nanoparticles in aqueous media but also can target folate receptors on breast tumor. In this study FA modified carboxymethyl chitosan have been synthesized using folic acid, N-hydroxy succinimide (NHS), N, N-dicyclohexylcarbodiimide (DCC) and 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethy- laminopropyl) carbodiimide (EDC). The nanoparticles containing 5-Fluorouracil as a model of hydrophilic drug were prepared through self-assembling of FA-CMCs chains using probe type sonicator. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy proved existence of carboxymethyl and folate groups on chains of chitosan. Degree of substitution of carboxymethyl and grafted folate were measured using potentiometric titration and UV/Vis spectroscopy respectively. The morphology of nanoparticles was observed by transmission electron microscopy which had spherical shape with an average size less than 200 nm. Load capacity and load efficiency of 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) were determined by UV/Vis spectroscopy.