ISSN print edition: 0366-6352 ISSN electronic edition: 1336-9075 Registr. No.: MK SR 9/7 Published monthly

Cucurbit[6]uril-functionalized Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles for pH-responsive drug delivery

Dan Liu, Liping Huang, Tongyi Li, Guohua Zhang, and Qingting Ni

School of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou, China

E-mail: liudan@jsut.edu.cn

Received: 11 November 2021  Accepted: 23 February 2022

Abstract:

In the present work, a new type of pH-responsive drug delivery system was successfully designed that is based on Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles functionalized with cucurbit[6]uril by thiol-ene click reaction. Various characterization experiments, such as SEM, TEM, FT-IR, XRD, XPS, and VSM, were performed to research the microstructure, morphology, composition, and physicochemical property of the prepared materials in detail. Then, the prepared cucurbit[6]uril-functionalized Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles were used to research the loading efficiency, loading capacity, and release percentage of doxorubicin. In the meantime, the influence of sample volume, loading time, pH, temperature, sample concentration, and carrier dosage on the loading efficiency was assessed and in vitro drug release behavior of doxorubicin in phosphate buffer solution with different pH values (3.0, 5.5, and 7.4) was examined. The results demonstrated that the developed drug delivery system based on cucurbit[6]uril-functionalized Fe₃O₄ magnetic nanoparticles showed high loading efficiency and pH-responsive controlled release behavior.

Keywords: Cucurbit[6]uril; Doxorubicin; pH-responsive; Drug delivery system

Full paper is available at www.springerlink.com.

DOI: 10.1007/s11696-022-02147-7

Chemical Papers 76 (6) 3853–3862 (2022)