Multifunctional magnetite nanoparticles for drug delivery: Preparation, characterisation, antibacterial properties and drug release kinetics

Mostafa Mabrouk; Rasha M Abd El-Wahab; Hanan H Beherei; Mohamed M Selim; Diganta B Das

doi:10.1016/j.ijpharm.2020.119658

Multifunctional magnetite nanoparticles for drug delivery: Preparation, characterisation, antibacterial properties and drug release kinetics

Int J Pharm. 2020 Sep 25:587:119658. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2020.119658. Epub 2020 Jul 16.

Authors

Mostafa Mabrouk¹, Rasha M Abd El-Wahab², Hanan H Beherei³, Mohamed M Selim², Diganta B Das⁴

Affiliations

¹ Refractories, Ceramics and Building Materials Department, National Research Centre (NRC), 33El Bohouth St (former EL Tahrir St), Dokki, Giza, P.O.12622, Egypt; Department of Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE113TU, Leicestershire, UK. Electronic address: mostafamabrouk.nrc@gmail.com.
² Physical Chemistry Department, National Research Centre, NRC, 33 EL Bohouth St., Dokki, P. O. 12622, Giza, Egypt.
³ Refractories, Ceramics and Building Materials Department, National Research Centre (NRC), 33El Bohouth St (former EL Tahrir St), Dokki, Giza, P.O.12622, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Chemical Engineering, Loughborough University, Loughborough LE113TU, Leicestershire, UK. Electronic address: d.b.das@lboro.ac.uk.

PMID: 32682959
DOI: 10.1016/j.ijpharm.2020.119658

Abstract

Multifunctional nanoparticles (NPs) with magnetic (M) and antibacterial properties were prepared for drug delivery purposes by a method involving co-precipitation synthesis. Partial and complete substitutions of ferrous ions (Fe²⁺) by copper ions (Cu²⁺) were carried out for the preparation of the magnetite NPs, which are designated as Cu_0.5M and CuM, respectively, in this work. In addition, chitosan and ciprofloxacin were hybridized with the NPs from the previous step to achieve multifunctional properties. XRD, TEM, SEM/EDAX, VSM and FTIR were subsequently employed to characterize various properties of the prepared NPs, namely, crystallinity, nanostructure (size), particle morphology, elemental mapping, magnetic strength and chemical composition. Antibacterial properties of the NPs were tested against Bacillus cereus (Gram-positive bacteria), Escherichia coli (Gram-negative bacteria) and Candida albicans (yeast). Efficiency of the ciprofloxacin release was also studied for the drug-loaded NPs. It is demonstrated that the obtained NPs possess mixed phases with crystalline structures that are affected by the degree of Cu ion substitution (5-10 nm (M), 2.5-3.5 nm (Cu_0.5M) and 11-16 nm (CuM)). Saturation magnetization values of the NPs were recorded as 38.7, 3.5 and 1.3 emu/g, respectively. It was also found that the introduction of Cu ions in the NP samples improved the significance of their antibacterial activity, especially against Escherichia coli. Chitosan and ciprofloxacin were found to have stronger effects against Bacillus cereus and Escherichia coli and lesser effects against Candida albicans. However, the samples containing chitosan, ciprofloxacin and the higher Cu ion concentration exhibited strong influence against Candida albicans. During a study period of 30-days, the amounts of released drug from the tested NPs were 85, 26 and 20% of the originally loaded amount, respectively. Owing to the findings in this paper, the developed NPs are considered to have good potential for drug delivery applications and to study them further such as in pre-clinical studies.

Keywords: Antibacterial activity; Copper-substitution; Drug delivery vehicles; Drug release kinetics; Magnetite; Nanoparticles.

MeSH terms

Anti-Bacterial Agents / pharmacology
Chitosan*
Drug Liberation
Ferrosoferric Oxide
Kinetics
Magnetite Nanoparticles*
Multifunctional Nanoparticles*
Nanoparticles*
Particle Size
Pharmaceutical Preparations*

Substances

Anti-Bacterial Agents
Magnetite Nanoparticles
Pharmaceutical Preparations
Chitosan
Ferrosoferric Oxide