Folic acid linked amino-cellulose for in vitro evaluation of doxorubicin delivery: Synthesis and characterization.

In this study, cellulose, a biodegradable polymer, was successfully aminated. For this purpose the cellulose was converted to a bromoacetylated derivative by reaction with bromoacetyl bromide. The resulting bromide derivative was then substituted with azido groups by reaction with sodium azide. Then the azido group was reduced to amines via the formation of the triphenylphosphinimine intermediate followed by hydrolysis using aqueous hydrazine. This sequence produced amino-cellulose. To gain a tumor-targeting doxorubicin (DOX) delivery system, we conjugated an active tumor-targeting ligand, folic acid, to the end of the resulting copolymer (FA-Amino-Cell). The structure of this copolymer was confirmed by FT-IR, UV-Vis, TGA, SEM, and 1H NMR spectroscopy. The SEM images showed that the hydrodynamic dimension of the resulted product is about 40 nm. Moreover, the Release profiles of DOX from the FA-Amino-Cell and its loading capacity were determined by UV-Vis absorption measurement at λmax 483 nm. The results showed that the DOX loaded copolymer had good control on the release period of DOX. So, it seems that the FA-Amino-Cell is a potential candidate for the targeted delivery of DOX for cancer treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]