Preperation of cellulose nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Natural biopolymers such as cellulose, starch, albumin and gelatin are widely used in nanoparticle production due to their advantages such as being biodegradable, not having any toxicity, low cost and being biocompatible. Cellulose nanoparticles, which have the potential to be used in many areas, have great usage potential in various fields such as food, pharmaceutical industry, personal care, electronics. It is of great importance for the environment and economy that cellulose is obtained from various natural raw material sources such as waste cotton, wood, wheat straw. Drug delivery systems are developed in order to reduce or eliminate the side effects caused by traditional cancer diagnosis and treatment. The disadvantages encountered in conventional methods in chemotherapy can be avoided with controlled drug delivery systems, which have various advantages such as removing the side and toxic effects caused by the treatment, reducing the dose of the active substance, extending the dosage interval, and delivering the active substance to the target area. Doxorubicin is an anthracycline-derived anticancer agent that has two different mechanisms of action: DNA intercalation and Topoisomerase 2b (TOP2b) inhibition. In this study, waste cotton fibers were treated with acid and alkali and sonicated after pretreatment applications such as washing and grinding. After preparing cellulose solution in NTU solvent system (NaOH-Thiourea-Urea), cellulose nanoparticles in spherical form were obtained by emulsion method. After the characterization studies of the nanoparticles, doxorubicin loading studies were carried out on cellulose nanoparticles. Then, drug loading capacity and in vitro drug release profile of nanoparticles loaded with doxorubicin were determined. Cellulose nanoparticles loaded with doxorubicin were carried out during the preparation of nanoparticles by dissolving the drug in NTU solution. According to these results, it was observed that cellulose nanoparticles in spherical form, with an average size of 400 nm, have a drug loading capacity as high as 99%. In the release profile, controlled release occurred, with 97% of the drug being released after 34 days with no initial bursting effect. In the last part of the study, the cytotoxicity of doxorubicin loaded cellulose nanoparticles, free drug and empty nanoparticles on the A549 cell line (non-small cell lung cancer cell line) was investigated by MTT test. Accordingly, it was shown that the cell viability test results after 48 hours coincided with the controlled and slow release profile of cellulose nanoparticles loaded with doxorubicin. According to these results, it has been determined that cellulose nanoparticles obtained from waste cotton have very good drug loading capacity and exhibit a long-term release profile without any initial explosive effect. Accordingly, it is thought to show promise in cancer treatment, as it is a carrier with a controlled release system.