Effect of solvents on the synthesis of hydroxyapatite sodium alginate nanocomposites for doxorubicin drug loading and delivery

In situ preparation of hydroxyapatite-sodium alginate nanocomposite (HASA) was carried out by the wet chemical precipitation method using water, ethanol, ethyl acetate and acetone as the dissolution medium. Drug loading was carried out at neutral pH, while in vitro drug release study was carried out in synthetic body fluid (SBF) at pH 7.4 and 37 oC.  The FTIR results show similar functional groups for precursors and synthesized nanocomposites. The nanocomposite prepared in water medium has the highest drug encapsulation efficiency of 83.67 %. Doxorubicin release profile comparison using difference factor (f1), showed that there is no significant difference between release profile of doxorubicin from nanocomposite synthesized in acetone and ethyl acetate ((f1 = 3.92), while other release profiles differed significantly. All the formulations follow first order release rate, while the n exponent in the Korsmeyer-Peppas equation indicates that the release mechanism is dominated by Fickian diffusion. The release profiles also indicate that nanocomposites synthesized from water medium is a better delivering agent for doxorubicin than the nanocomposites from the others solvents. Keywords: nanocomposites, solvents, drug loading, hydroxyapatite, release profil