Design and development of 5-fluorouracil loaded biodegradable magnetic microspheres as site-specific drug delivery vehicle for cancer therapy

Abstract

The major limitation of present cancer chemotherapeutic agents is the poor selectivity of anti-cancer drug and the resultant toxicity. To circumvent this limitation intense research is currently focused on development of controlled and targeted drug delivery systems. Drug delivery systems are based on nanoscale and micro-scaledrug delivery processes with potential advantage of enhanced accuracy of tumor targeting. Among the nanoparticulate drug delivery systems magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (MIONs) demonstrate efficacy in terms of tissue targeting and biocompatibility. The polymer coating could be optimized for required rate of release of the drug. The magnetic iron nanoparticles could be directed to a target tissue through application of an external magnetic field. Consequent to the site-specific delivery of the drug, the therapeutic efficacy of the chemotherapeutic agent can be evaluated in terms of clinical outcomes. This study reports synthetic preparation of magnetic poly-(D, L-lactide-co-glycolic acid) (PLGA) microspheres loaded with an anticancer drug 5-Fluorouracil (5-FLU). The nanoparticlulate drug loaded microspheres were synthesized and stabilized as water-in-oil-in-water (W1-O-W2) ternary emulsion system via solvent evaporation. The nanoparticulate system was characterized by X-ray diffraction analysis, Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy and electron microscopy. The magnetic nanoparticulate system also exhibited pH-dependent release of 5-fluorouracil.