Preparation and in vitro drug delivery response of doxorubicin loaded PAA coated magnetite nanoparticles

In this study, spherical superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) with mean diameter of 6 nm were prepared by means of a reduction-precipitation method. The surface of SPION were coated with poly(acrylic acid) 5000 (PAA-5000) and followed by loading of anticancer drug doxorubicin. Drug loading efficiency was (14.64 ± 0.29). In vitro drug release studies were done for 8 h at two different pH (4.2 and 7.4) and drug release rates at pH 4.2 (100% DOX released in 2 h) was much faster than that at pH 7.4 (~78% DOX released in 8 h). These results indicate that these DOX-carrier nanoparticles have a high drug loading capacity and favorable release property for magnetic drug targeting. Kinetic drug release followed Korsmeyer-Peppas model at pH 4.2 while at pH 7.4 zero order model was best fitted, and drug release mechanism followed super case II transport in acidic and basic medium. The samples were characterized by XRD, SEM, TEM, FTIR, and UV-Vis