Efficient water soluble nanostructured ZnO grafted O-carboxymethyl chitosan/curcumin-nanocomposite for cancer therapy

Abstract

The present work deals with the synthesis of efficient water soluble O-carboxymethyl chitosan (O-CMCS) based nanocomposites (NCs) with nanostructured zinc oxide (n-ZnO) by ex-situ grafting method for the delivery of anticancer drug curcumin (Cr). The phase identification, morphology and thermal stability of prepared Cr/O-CMCS/n-ZnO NCs have been investigated by FT-IR, XRD, SEM, TEM and TGA/DTA techniques. The drug entrapment efficiency have found to be 74% and in vitro drug release study performed at 37 °C at pH 4.5 and 7.4 indicated slow and controlled release in the initial phase and sustained in later phase. The MTT assay showed higher and preferential toxicity of the Cr/O-CMCS/n-ZnO NCs against cancer cells (MA104). The cellular uptake study by FACS revealed concentration dependent uptake of the NCs. The utilization of this Cr/O-CMCS/n-ZnO nanoformulation offers an efficient strategy and a novel promising soluble nanomatrix for anticancer therapy and other biomedical applications. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.