Two-Step Route for the Preparation of Nano-Scaled Magnetic Chitosan Particles for Anticancer Drugs

A new two-step route for the preparation of nano-scaled magnetic chitosan particles has been developed, different from reported one-step in situ preparation and two-step preparation method of reversedphase suspension, Triton X-100 reversed-phase water-in-oil microemulsion encapsulation method was employed in coating the pre-prepared Fe3O4 nanoparticles with chitosan. Two model anticancer drugs, Doxorubicin (DOX) and Methotrexate (MTX) were loaded effectively to functionalized MNPs through electrostatic interactions. Our developed UV method was applied for simultaneous determination of DOX and MTX. It was concluded that our findings may open the possibilities for pH-responsive targeted delivery of DOX and MTX to the cancerous tissues. 

Keywords:

Chitosan , Magnetic nanoparticles , Drug Delivery , doxorubicin , methotrexate