Nanocomposite mesoporous silica nanoparticles modified with alginate (MSN-ALG) for drug delivery

Curcumin is a substance that contained in turmeric yellow pigment. Curcumin has several benefits, which can be used as anti-bacterial, anti-inflammatory, anti-oxidant and anti-neoplastic. But, the curcumin characteristic has poor water solubility and low bioavailability. The low bioavailability of curcumin certainly minimizes its therapeutical effects. This problem can be overcome by the application of mesoporous silica nanoparticle as a drug delivery system. Several research which has been conducted, by using mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) as a drug carrier. These studies proved that MSN could maximize drug delivery process. The mechanism was by maintaining drug into a smaller size through encapsulation within the porous structure of MSN to improve drug delivery process in human body. However most of these studies used mesoporous silica pore structure with 2D mesostructure. In this research, we use mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSN) type IBN-2 which has 3D pore structure to overcome pore blocking issue, as a result of blockage of drug particles which were loaded into mesoporous silica. MSN is modified with alginate. The alginate is used to give effect of a controlled release at certain pH. Alginate is an anionic polymer, and has negative surface charge. Therefore, MSN is first coated with APTES to change the surface charge which also tend to be negative, so the alginate coating process runs optimally. Before that curcumin is loaded into the MSN, and then the alginate coating process is conducted. This research is conducted by varying the effect of APTES concentration, alginate concentration, and in-vitro release pH in various concentrations according to pH conditions in the human body. The synthesis are followed by various analysis using Spectrophotometer UV-Vis, and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy to determine the characteristic of drug carriers. The purpose of this research is to determine the optimum concentration and condition of mesoporous silica to improve the effectiveness of drug delivery process in specific area. Sample with ratio of MSN and APTES 1.2 mg : 3.0 ml with concentration of alginate 1 mg/ml showed better function of controlled release in certain pH