Sono-chemical synthesis and characterization of Fe3O4@mTiO2-GO nanocarriers for dual-targeted colon drug delivery.

In this study, a kind of magnetic Fe₃O₄@mTiO₂-GO (where m was shorted mesoporous) hybrids with core–shell nano-structure for controlled dual targeted drug delivery was synthesized using a facile sono-chemical method. The structure and chemical composition of the nanocarrier (NC), and its surface morphology, were studied by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) with an energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) spectroscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Synthesis of Fe₃O₄@mTiO₂-GO was proved by XRD and FT-IR. SEM showed that the particle size of this NC was in the range of ∼ 85–95 nm. EDX confirmed the presence of Ti, Fe, C and O in the nanocarrier. VSM analysis showed the magnetic behavior of the Fe₃O₄@mTiO₂-GO nano-hybrids with saturation magnetization (<italic>M</italic>_S) of 1.57 emu/g at room temperature. Curcumin (CUR) as a hydrophobic and an anti-tumor model drug was loaded on the NC. Drug loading capacity and encapsulation efficiency of this NC were as high as 17.85 and 72.45%, respectively. The drug release behavior was sustained and pH-responsive. MTT results demonstrated no significant cytotoxicity of the NC on Human Foreskin Fibroblast Normal cell line (HFF-2), indicating that this NC can be safe for use as a drug carrier for delivering anticancer drugs to tumor sites. The results of an MTT test on Caco-2 cancerous cells proved that CUR in nano-carriers has retained its anti-cancer properties. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]