Preparation of crosslinked polypropylene fumarate particles loaded with magnetic nanoparticles and paclitaxel via photo initiated miniemulsion polymerization

Cancer is the deadliest disease of human beings in worldwide. For cancer treatment chemotherapy is highly preferred but most chemotherapeutic agents are non-specific. The cytotoxic drug attacks healthy cells in addition to the target tumor cells. Magnetic drug delivery with using drug carriers is a very efficient method to target a localized disease site of the body. Biodegradable nanoparticles which are produced by biodegradable polymers can be used as carriers for drug. The aim of this project is to develop a new drug delivery system. Biocompatible polymer namely Polypropylene fumarate (PPF) is used to produce biodegradable nanoparticles to be used as drug carriers and magnetic nanoparticles are added to target a localized disease site within the body. In this project, firstly magnetic nanoparticles are incorporated in PPF which is crosslinked with a N-vinyl pyrrolidone (NVP) using photo initiated miniemulsion polymerization method. FTIR spectroscopy was used to confirm the crosslinking of poly propylene fumarate (PPF) with N-vinyl pyrrolidone (NVP) by photo initiated mini emulsion polymerization. Then the morphology and size of crosslinked polymer particles with and without magnetite were determined by SEM. FTIR confirmed the crosslinking and swelling tests were used to determine the percentage of crosslinking. Crosslinked polymer nanoparticles with embedded magnetic nanoparticles were loaded with Paclitaxel (anticancer drug). The amount of drug release from crosslinked polymer nanoparticles with and without magnetite was determined by HPLC and these carriers are found to release all the encapsulated drug in less than one month. The degradation studies are carried out by pH and weight measurements. The release of drug is found to be complete before the polymer nanoparticles are degraded suggesting the drug release to be diffusion controlled.