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Controlled release of 5-fluorouracil from microporous zeolites
Marios Spanakis1, Nikolaos Bouropoulos2, Dimitrios Theodoropoulos3
1Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmacology, Thessaloniki, Greece.
Abstract:
Zeolite particles with different pore diameter and particle size were loaded with the model anticancer drug 5-fluorouracil. The loaded zeolites were characterized by means of SEM, XRD, DSC, XPS, N2 physisorption and FT-IR. Higher loading of 5-FU was observed for NaX-FAU than BEA. Release studies were carried out in HCl 0.1N. Release of 5-FU from NaX-FAU showed exponential-type behaviour with the drug fully released within 10 min. In the case of BEA, the kinetics of 5-FU shows a multi-step profile with prolonged release over time. Molecular dynamics simulations showed that diffusion of the drug molecule through the BEA framework is lower than for NaX-FAU due to increased van der Waals interaction between the drug and the framework. The effect of zeolitic particles on the viability of Caco-2 monolayers showed that the NaX-FAU particles cause a reduction of cell viability in a more pronounced way compared with the BEA particles.
From The Clinical Editor:
This article describes zeolite-based nanoparticles in generating time-controlled release of 5-FU from zeolite preparations for anti-cancer therapy.
