Novel chitosan/γ-alumina/carbon quantum dot hydrogel nanocarrier for targeted drug delivery

Mohammad Hossein Karami; Mehrab Pourmadadi; Majid Abdouss; Mohammad Reza Kalaee; Omid Moradi; Abbas Rahdar; Ana M Díez-Pascual

doi:10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.126280

Novel chitosan/γ-alumina/carbon quantum dot hydrogel nanocarrier for targeted drug delivery

Int J Biol Macromol. 2023 Aug 15:251:126280. doi: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.126280. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Mohammad Hossein Karami¹, Mehrab Pourmadadi², Majid Abdouss³, Mohammad Reza Kalaee⁴, Omid Moradi⁵, Abbas Rahdar⁶, Ana M Díez-Pascual⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Chemistry, Amirkabir University of Technology, P.O. Box 15875-4413, Tehran, Iran.
² Department of Biotechnology, School of Chemical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran.
³ Department of Chemistry, Amirkabir University of Technology, P.O. Box 15875-4413, Tehran, Iran. Electronic address: phdabdouss44@aut.ac.ir.
⁴ Department of Polymer Engineering, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, P.O. Box 19585-466, Tehran, Iran.
⁵ Department of Chemistry, Shahre-Qods Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahre-Qods, P.O. Box 37515-374, Tehran, Iran.
⁶ Department of Physics, Faculty of Sciences, University of Zabol, Zabol 538-98615, Iran. Electronic address: a.rahdar@uoz.ac.ir.
⁷ Universidad de Alcalá, Facultad de Ciencias, Departamento de Química Analítica, Química Física e Ingeniería Química, Ctra. Madrid-Barcelona, Km. 33.6, Alcalá de Henares, 28805 Madrid, Spain. Electronic address: am.diez@uah.es.

PMID: 37591420
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijbiomac.2023.126280

Abstract

Curcumin (CUR) is among the most natural and effective antitumor drugs for cancer treatment. These drugs have low solubility and short half-lives that reduce their effectiveness in drug release systems. Herein, a hydrogel nanocarrier containing chitosan (CS), alumina (γ-Al₂O₃), and carbon quantum dots (CQDs) was prepared by the water-in-oil-in-water (W/O/W) double nanoemulsion method. DLS revealed a nanocarrier size of 227 nm, with a zeta potential of -37.8 mV, which corroborates its stability. FE-SEM showed its quasi-spherical shape, FT-IR and XRD confirmed the presence of all the components in the nanocomposite and gave information about the intermolecular interactions between them and the crystalline nature of the nanocarrier, respectively. The drug loading (48 %) and entrapment efficiency (86 %) were higher than those reported previously for other CUR nanocarriers. The drug release profile revealed a controlled and stable release, and a pH-sensitive behavior, with faster CUR release in an acid environment. The breast cancer cell line was examined by cytotoxicity and cell apoptosis analyses. The results showed that the slow release over time and the programmed cell death were due to interactions between CUR and the nanocarrier. Considering the results obtained herein, CS/γAl₂O₃/CQDs/CUR can be considered as a promising new nanosystem for tumor treatment.

Keywords: Carbon quantum dot; Chitosan; Gamma-alumina.