Development of PCL/TiO2 composite as an efficient antibacterial, anticancer drug and biocompatible properties

Abstract

The present investigation focuses on the synthesis of hybrid materials (organic/inorganic) for biomedical applications using titanium dioxide (TiO2) and polycaprolactone (PCL). Nano-structured titania produced from a newly synthesized titanium(IV) heteroleptic complex using sol–gel method. In order to develop PCL/TiO2 nanocomposite, three different compositions (30 wt%, 40 wt% and 50 wt%) of TiO2 was processed with biodegradable PCL matrix via sol–gel technique. The resulted nanocomposite material was characterized using powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) analyses. PXRD patterns of the hybrid material revealed that the crystallinity of the PCL/TiO2 was found to be decreased as the amount of nano TiO2 got increased in the PCL matrix and crystallites size was observed as 27 nm for 50 wt% composite. FTIR spectra indicated the interaction between the nano titania and functional group of the PCL. Surface morphology and elemental composition were analysed using FE-SEM and EDX. Using the well diffusion technique, PCL/TiO2 composites were tested for antibacterial activity against four infective microbiological strains such as Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Bacillus subtilis (B. subtilis), Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) and Escherichia coli (E. coli). PCL/TiO2 composite (50 wt%) demonstrated good results against S. aureus (16 mm) and E. coli (17 mm) strains. Protein binding interaction of composite material with bovine serum albumin (BSA) exhibited highest binding affinity for 50 wt% of PCL/TiO2 (Kb = 0.88 × 104 M−1). Biocompatibility of very PCL/TiO2 composite was evaluated against osteosarcoma cancer (MG 63) cell line and observed half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) value as 35.37 µg/mL estimated by MTT assay. Apoptosis was also carried out by using acridine orange/ethidium bromide (AO/EB) staining.