Folic acid functionalized Ag@MOF(Ag) decorated carboxymethyl starch nanoparticles as a new doxorubicin delivery...

Considering the benefits of controlled drug delivery in cancer treatment, as well as the importance of biological macromolecules in this area, herein, the pre-synthesized carboxymethyl starch (CMS) was converted to CMS nanoparticles (CMS NPs) in one easy nanoprecipitation way. Thereafter, the Ag@MOF(Ag) was in situ synthesized in the presence of pre-prepared CMS NPs (CMS NPs/Ag@MOF(Ag)). Eventually, the functionalization with folic acid (FA) obtained the CMS NPs/Ag@MOF(Ag)-FA. The success of the accomplished process was approved by doing several techniques, including FT-IR, XRD, EDX, AFM, etc. The SEM analysis showed a combination of rod-like and spherical-like morphology for the fabricated bio-nanocomposite. The generated CMS NPs/Ag@MOF(Ag)-FA with a surface area of 10.595 m²/g displayed a pore size of 13.666 nm and 82.99 % of doxorubicin (DOX) loading efficiency (DOX@CMS NPs/Ag@MOF(Ag)-FA). The 38.46 % and 58.19 % of loaded DOX were released respectively within 240 h at pH 7.4 and pH 5.0, referring to the pH-responsivity of the constructed system. 27.25 % of inhibitory effects on HeLa cells were obtained for the drug-loaded bio-nanocomposite. The CMS NPs/Ag@MOF(Ag)-FA also displayed an inherent antibacterial activity towards two common gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. All of these results can contribute to developing polysaccharide-based porous systems in controlled cancer therapy.