Preparation and functional characterization of tumor-targeted folic acid-chitosan conjugated nanoparticles loaded with mitoxantrone

Abstract

Folic acid conjugated chitosan was prepared by cross-linking reaction with 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC), and then used as a template to prepare folic acid-chitosan (FA–CS) conjugated nanoparticles and load mitoxantrone nanoparticles (FA-CSNP/MTX). Drug dissolution testing, CCK-8 method, and confocal microscopy were used to detect their controlled-release capability in different situations and the specific uptake by HONE1 cells. The experimental results show that the nanoparticles have uniform size distribution of 48–58 nm. The highest encapsulation rate of the particles on mitoxantrone hydrochloride (MTX) is (77.5±1.9)%, and the drug loading efficiency is (18.4±0.4)%. The sustained release effect, cell growth inhibition activity and targeting effect of the FA-CS/MTX nanoparticles are good in artificial gastric fluid and intestinal fluid. It is demonstrated that the FA-CSNP system is a potentially useful system for the targeted delivery of anticancer drug MTX.

Keywords

folic acid / chitosan / nanoparticles / mitoxantrone / tumor targeting

References

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