Dopamine / Artesunate loaded polyhydroxybutyrate-g-cellulose- magnetite zinc oxide core shell nanocomposites:...

In this study, polyhydroxybutyrate-g-cellulose - Fe₃O₄/ZnO (PHB-g-cell- Fe₃O₄/ZnO) nanocomposites (NCs) was synthesized and used as a delivery system for Dopamine (DO) /Artesunate (ART) drugs. Different types of cells (Ccell, Scell, Pcell) grafted with PHB were designed and mixed with different contents of Fe₃O₄/ZnO. Physical and chemical features of PHB-g-cell-Fe₃O₄/ZnO NCs were detected by FTIR, XRD, dynamic light scattering, transmission electron microscopy, and scanning electron microscopy. ART/DO drugs were loaded into PHB-g-cell- Fe₃O₄/ZnO NCs by single emulsion technique. The rate of drugs release was studied at different pHs (5.4, 7.4). Owing to the overlap between the absorption bands of both drugs, differential pulse adsorptive cathodic stripping voltammetry (DP-AdCSV) was used for the estimation of ART. To study the mechanism of ART and DO release, zero-order, first order, Hixon Crowell, Higuchi and Korsmeyer-Peppas models were applied to the experiment results. The results showed that Ic₅₀ of ART @PHB-g-Ccell-10% DO@ Fe₃O₄/ZnO, ART @PHB-g-Pcell-10% DO@ Fe₃O₄/ZnO and ART @PHB-g-Scell-10% DO@ Fe₃O₄/ZnO were 21.22, 12.3, and 18.11 μg/mL, respectively. The results revealed that ART @PHB-g-Pcell-10% DO@ Fe₃O₄/ZnO was more effective against HCT-116 than the carriers loaded by a single drug. The antimicrobial efficacy of the nano-loaded drugs was considerably improved compared with free drugs.