Synthesis and characterization of pH-sensitive curcumin loaded onto the surface of Ni-Cu-Zn Fe2O4 nanoparticles modified by pluronic P123 for controlled drug release

Over the past few decades, magnetic nanoparticles have been considered by many researchers due to their unique physicochemical, magnetic and optical properties and extensive applications in the field of biomedical (such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), drug delivery system and magnetic hyperthermia), etc [1]. Most of the magnetic nanoparticles are made up of iron oxide, such as magnetite (Fe3O4), maghemite (γ-Fe2O3), hematite (ɑ-Fe2O3) and ceramic spinel ferrites with a structure MFe2O4 that M containing some metals such as Cu, Mn, Cd, Ni, Zn, Ca [2]. However, in this work, we have tried to examine the effect of different metal ions (Cu2+ and Ni2+) with different ratios on the size, morphology and magnetic properties of ferrite spinel (NixCu0.2-x) Zn0.8Fe2O4 nanoparticles. We used two methods of gel auto-combustion and microwave for producing spinel ferrite nanoparticles. Pluronic stabilized magnetic nanoparticles (PSMNPs) were producted by introducing amphiphilic tri-block co-polymer, Pluronic P123 onto the surface of hydrophobic magnetic nanoparticles (HMNPs) and evaluated their efficacity for delivery of hydrophobic anti-cancer agent, curcumin (CUR) [3]. The CUR@PSMNPs are well characterized for their structural, morphological, magnetic properties by various characterization techniques such as the XRD, SEM, IR, EDX, UV–Vis, VSM and TEM analysis. The MTT test showed that both curcumin and CUR@PSMNPs with different values of IC50 significantly reduced the proliferation of 4T1 cells. These results indicated that the CUR@PSMNP formula is convenient to producing cytotoxic tumors, that is probably due to increased bioavailability of the drug to the target site.