Tripolyphosphate-crosslinked chitosan-based nanoparticles as pH responsive for curcumin release

In recent years, the use of chitosan-based nanoparticles (CS NPs) for controlled release has attracted much attention from researchers. Hence, in the present work, two types of tripolyphosphate (TPP)-crosslinked CS NPs, namely CS@CUR/TPP and CS/Salicylic acid@Curcumin/TPP (CS/SA@CUR/TPP), were designed as biocompatible nanocarriers for controlled delivery of curcumin (CUR). The successful preparation of NPs is analyzed and confirmed by FT-IR, XRD, FE-SEM, EDX, TEM, TGA, DLS, and Zeta potential analysis. Based on the TEM analysis, it was observed that the designed CS/SA@CUR/TPP NPs had a spherical morphology with an average diameter of around 50 nm. The drug encapsulation efficiency (EE%) of CS@CUR/TPP and CS/SA@CUR/TPP NPs was 63.9% and 94.4%, respectively. The in vitro drug release study revealed that the release rate of CUR from the NPs was higher at pH 5.5 compared to pH 7.4. This observation confirmed the controlled and pH-sensitive drug release from the prepared CS/SA@CUR/TPP NPs. The Korsmeyer-Peppas and Fickian diffusion well described the release mechanism of CUR. In addition, the designed CS/SA@CUR/TPP NPs showed good antibacterial properties against bacteria E. coli and S. aureus. In addition, the cellular cytotoxicity of the prepared CS/SA/TPP toward MCF-7 breast cancer cells confirms its relative biocompatibility and safety, whereas CS/SA/CUR-TPP NPs toward MCF-7 breast cancer cells had higher cytotoxicity effects due to the targeted and controlled release of CUR to MCF-7 cells. Based on the obtained findings, the prepared CS/SA@CUR/TPP NPs can be suggested as a biocompatible drug delivery system for cancer therapy.