Comparative Study of Various Graphene Oxide Structures as Efficient Drug Release Systems for Ibuprofen

Ibuprofen is a non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug that is widely prescribed for its analgesic, antipyretic, and anti-inflammatory actions to treat pain, symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis and fever, but it is also known to cause stomach-related side effects. The development of efficient drug delivery systems for this compound to prevent these side effects is hampered by its poor water solubility. In this work, we show that graphite oxide and its derivatives have great potential as effective drug delivery systems not only to overcome side effects but also to increase the short biological half-life of ibuprofen. We studied the adsorption capacity of graphite oxide and carboxylated and sulfonated graphene oxide for this drug and its release in simulated gastric and intestinal fluid. The obtained compounds were characterized by X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. DFT calculations were conducted to elucidate the Ibuprofen/host interactions, to establish which properties of these carbon nanomaterials control the loading and release, as well as to provide a better understanding of the orientation of the drug molecules on the single-layer GO.