Incorporation of Levodopa into Biopolymer Coatings Based on Carboxylated Carbon Nanotubes for pH-Dependent Sustained Release Drug Delivery

Abstract

Four drug delivery systems were formulated by non-covalent functionalization of carboxylated single walled carbon nanotubes using biocompatible polymers as coating agent (i.e., Tween 20, Tween 80, chitosan or polyethylene glycol) for the delivery of levodopa, a drug used in Parkinson’s disease. The chemical interaction between the coating agent and carbon nanotubes-levodopa conjugate was confirmed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman studies. The drug release profiles were revealed to be dependent upon the type of applied coating material and this could be further adjusted to a desired rate to meet different biomedical conditions. In vitro drug release experiments measured using UV-Vis spectrometry demonstrated that the coated conjugates yielded a more prolonged and sustained release pattern compared to the uncoated conjugate. Cytotoxicity of the formulated conjugates was studied by 3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay using normal mouse embryonic fibroblast 3T3 cell line. Compared to the non-coated conjugate, the MTT data indicated that the coating procedure improved the biocompatibility of all systems by 34–41% when the concentration used exceeded 100 μg/mL. In conclusion, the comprehensive results of this study suggest that carbon nanotubes-based drug carrier coated with a suitable biomaterial may possibly be a potential nanoparticle system that could facilitate drug delivery to the brain with tunable physicochemical properties.

Fmoc-PEG Coated Single-Wall Carbon Nanotube Carriers by Non-covalent Functionalization: An Experimental and Molecular Dynamics Study

“…To overcome this, SWNTs need to be functionalized with biocompatible agents. Functionalization of SWNTs with biopolymers (Fakurazi et al, 2018), suitable ligands (Sadjadi et al, 2018), or functional groups (Mohamed et al, 2020) assists in site-specific administration of a drug and sitespecific recognition of the nanocarrier (Adeli et al, 2013). Noncovalent functionalization possesses advantages over the other functionalization methods in terms of structural and functional properties of both nanotubes and biomolecules, exploiting mostly π-π interactions (Chen et al, 2001;Zorbas et al, 2005;Pender et al, 2006), as well as hydrophobic interactions, and electrostatic adsorption (Bilalis et al, 2014).…”

Characterization of Betulinic Acid-Multiwalled Carbon Nanotubes Modified with Hydrophilic Biopolymer for Improved Biocompatibility on NIH/3T3 Cell Line

“…In recent years, CNT have been successfully applied as a promising drug delivery vehicle in nanomedicine due to their high specific surface area (internally and externally) and rich electronic polyaromatic structure, which is capable of conjugating with numerous types of therapeutic agents, for example, drugs [ 10 , 14 ], proteins [ 15 ], antibodies, [ 16 ] genes [ 17 ] and vaccines [ 18 ] for targeting drug delivery. In addition, oxidized CNT have been reported to display anti-microbial activity against various pathogenic bacteria [ 19 ], and they can also be utilized as a potential anti-oxidant in free radical scavenging owing to the presence of carboxylic acid (–COOH) functional groups [ 20 ].…”

Electrosprayed Ultra-Thin Coating of Ethyl Cellulose on Drug Nanoparticles for Improved Sustained Release

“…During the past several decades, polymeric excipients have provided numerous strategies for developing new dosage forms with all sorts of drug-controlled release profiles [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Among them, polymeric coating is one of the most popular strategies for modifying the drug release kinetics in both the traditional pharmaceutical industry and also the advanced laboratory nanomethods [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 ]. Particularly in nanopharmaceutics, the simple and robust nanocoating methods are highly desired [ 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ].…”