pH sensitive adriamycin-incorporated nanoparticles self-assembled from amphiphilic chitosan derivatives with enhanced antioxidant and antitumor activities

Development of secure and efficient drug delivery systems to overcome physicochemical challenges in cancer clinical treatment is one of the most active fields, and novel drug carriers are actively sought. In this work, the successful synthesis of amphiphilic chitosan derivatives containing pyridine cations and folic acid (TMACMCF) was confirmed by FTIR and 1 H NMR spectroscopy. The critical micelle concentration (CMC) of TMACMCF was studied, and the results indicated that it possessed a relatively low CMC (0.186 mg/mL). Self-assembled nanoparticles (TMACMCF-ADM NPs) for the entrapment and delivery of adriamycin (ADM) were synthesized based on TMACMCF, and the morphology, particle size, zeta potential, sustained release performance, antioxidant and antitumor activities, and cytotoxicity were investigated. The particle size of TMACMCF-ADM NPs was 163.79 +/- 7.31 nm, and the morphology observed by SEM and TEM showed spherical or oval particles. TMACMCF-ADM NPs showed excellent entrapment of ADM with entrapment efficiency and drug loading efficiency of 65.04 +/- 1.20 % and 22.73 +/- 0.40 %, respectively. The release performance results showed that in vitro release profiles of ADM from NPs exhibited pH-sensitive controlled and sustained release properties. The assay of antioxidant activity exhibited that TMACMCF-ADM NPs possessed significantly improved scavenging ability against three kinds of radicals (Superoxide-radical, DPPH radical, and ABTS radical). Moreover, the assay of antitumor activity by CCK-8 test exhibited that nanoparticles led to statistically significant enhancement in inhibition index for four kinds of cancer cells (BGC-823, MCF-7, HEPG-2, and A549). This work provides a promising carrier for secure and effective entrapment and delivery of ADM.