comparison of different fatty acid grafted chitosan as a ph-sensitive nanocarrier for the delivery of methotrexate

This work compared the in vitro effects of different fatty acid-grafted chitosan surfaces as nanocarriers for targeted delivery of methotrexate (mtx) anticancer drug. surface modification of chitosan with fatty acids, namely oleic and caffeic acid, has been performed. the formation of the nanocomposites was investigated using scanning electron microscopy and fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. batch sorption tests were performed to investigate the effect of contact time and ph at 25 ºc. the sorption isotherms data were better expressed by langmuir model and the adsorption kinetics data fitted well to pseudo-second-order model. the maximum sorption capacities of modified chitosan by oleic and caffeic acids for mtx were 38 and 62.5 mg g-1, respectively. the in vitro mtx release studies were performed in simulated gastric fluid and simulated intestinal fluid to investigate the mechanism of release for anticancer drug. the chitosan modified by oleic and caffeic acids indicated an anti-cancer drug release profile and released about 67 % and 45% of the drug after 30 h, respectively.