Arginine and chitosan modified magnetic nanoparticles in ciprofloxacin delivery: A comparative, characterization and in vitro release study

Recently, magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) have become great potential nanocarriers for drugs and biomaterials. Chitosan (Chi) and Arginine (Arg) were utilized to coat magnetite nanoparticles to produce Chi-IONPs and Arg-IONPs. The preparation Chi-IONPs and Arg-IONPs was carried out by a two-step process. Initially, magnetite (Fe3O4) was prepared from Fe+2 and Fe+3 ions which were added into a solution of soda by a co-precipitation method. In the second step, prepared IONPs were coated with Chi and Arg polymers. The Chi-IONPs and Arg-IONPs were then conjugated with ciprofloxacin (Cip) to produce Cip-Chi-IONPs and Cip-Arg-IONPs nanocomposites. Characterization was performed using X-ray diffraction analysis (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Zeta Potential determination, vibrating-sample magnetometery (VSM), UV-Vis spectroscopy and cytotoxicity. From the XRD, the plane (311) of magnetic nanoparticles remained without shift, indicating that they remained in the structure as the core of the carrier. The Chi and Arg polymers bound to IONPs were estimated by calculating the difference in weight loss by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). The loading of Cip to the IONPs was confirmed by FTIR analysis. The percent loading of Cip onto the Chi-IONPs and Arg-IONPs was measured using UV-Vis spectroscopy, and found to be around 15% and 9%, respectively. The size of Cip-Chi-IONPs and Cip-Arg-IONPs nanocomposites were ~13 nm, which was measured by TEM. From the VSM experiment, the Ms saturation value for IONPs, Cip-Chi-IONPs and Cip-Arg-IONPs was 79 emu/g, 38 emu/g, and 26 emu/g, respectively, and field coercivity (Hc) for each was each 7.37, 16.12 and 13.69 Gauss, respectively. In the release study, Cip-Arg-IONPs demonstrated a faster rate of release compared with Cip-Chi-IONPs and followed a second order kinetic mode with diffusion mechanism. In the cytotoxicity study for Cip-Chi-IONPs and Cip-Arg-IONPs nanocomposites, the results showed that there were no toxic properties up to 100 μg/mL. This work showed that the development of Cip-Chi-IONPs and Cip-Arg-IONPs nanocomposites have a great potential for use as drug delivery systems.