Download Chitosan is a well accepted nanoparticle for drug delivery applications

Folic acid tagged Chitosan nanoparticle loaded with novel drug
“copper acetylacetonate” for efficient cancer cell targeting.
Arindam Pramanik & Parimal Karmakar*
Department of Life Science and Biotechnology, Jadavpur University, Kolkata
700032, India
*Corresponding author E-mail: [email protected]
Objective:
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To develop a biodegradable & non-toxic nanoparticle for cancer cell
delivery.
To choose an efficient anticancer drug.
To make hydrophobic modification in the nanoparticle for proper loading of
the anticancer drug.
To specifically target the nanoparticle to cancer cells for minimizing any
toxic effect on healthy cells.
Result: In this work we have developed a novel non-toxic, biodegradable
chitosan nanoparticle which is hydrophobically modified at its core for various
hydrophobic drug encapsulations. Folic acid is conjugated on the surface of the
nanoparticle for targeting of cancer cells. We have also explored the synergistic
anti-cancer activity of copper ion and acetylacetone complex containing 1,3
diketone group (like curcumin) in Copper acetylacetonate (CuAA). The
cytotoxicity of the CuAA complex was evaluated on various cancer cells. Among
the mechanisms, reactive oxygen species (ROS), glutathione level (GSH) in the
cell was found to increase upon treatment with CuAA along with mitochondrial
membrane damage. Further this reagent induced apoptosis mediated cell death.
For application of this novel drug as a therapeutic and to overcome the problem
of solubility of CuAA, it is loaded into the folic acid tagged hydrophobic chitosan
nanoparticle.
Conclusion: This novel CuAA has an efficient anticancer activity. For its specific
targeting of cancer cells and minimizing toxicity to healthy cells the hydrophobic
chitosan nanoparticle tagged with folic acid is an excellent strategy. Thus CuAA
encapsulated in the chitosan nanoparticle can be a potential anticancer
therapeutic agent.