Paclitaxel loaded magnetic nanocomposites with folate modified chitosan/carboxymethyl surface; a vehicle for imaging and targeted drug delivery

Abstract

In this study, Paclitaxel (PTX) containing, bovine serum albumin (BSA) nanoparticles were fabricated via a simple approach. Folic acid (FA) was conjugated to chitosan (CS)/carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) through an esterification reaction to produce BSA–CS–FA or BSA-CMC-FA conjugates. NiFe2O4 noncore (NFs) and PTX were loaded through a heat treatment and by a diffusion process. NFs-BSA–CS and NFs-BSA–CMC–FA with size of about 80nm, showed superior transversal R2 relaxation rate of 349 (mM)−1s−1 along with folate receptor-targeted and magnetically directed functions. NFs-BSA–CS–FA or NFs-BSA–CS–FA were found stable and biocompatible. Application of an external magnetic field effectively enhanced the PTX release from PTX-NFs-BSA–CS–FA or PTX-NFs-BSA–CS–FA and hence tumor inhibition rate. This study validate that NFs-BSA–CS–FA or NFs-BSA–CMC–FA and PTX-NFs-BSA–CS–FA or PTX-NFs-BSA–CS–FA are suitable systems for tumor diagnosis and therapy.