Nanohybrid Nanoparticles Based on Chitosan/Functionalized Carbon Nanotubes as Anti-HIV Nanocarrier

Abstract

Carbon nanotube-natural biopolymer nanovectors have important potential applications in delivery system for drugs and biomolecules. In this work, the use of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) as nanoreservoirs for drug loading and controlled release is demonstrated. We synthesized different carbon nanotube-based drug delivery systems including acid and amide-functionalized MWCNT; chitosan (CS) covalently grafted to functionalized MWCNT and MWCNT-CS nanoparticles (NPs) using an ionotropic gelation method as a sustained-release systems for delivery of Tenofovir (hydrophilic anti-retroviral drug). The prepared NPs as different drug delivery systems were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). As it is shown, in vitro drug release studies indicated that the cumulative release rate of Tenofovir from MWCNT–CS NPs shows the best result and it reaches the maximum value (90%) after about 120 h. Moreover, comparing to ungrafted CNTs, MWCNT–CS shows high dispersability and long-term stability in aqueous medium which approves the effective solubilization of MWCNT followed by grafting with CS.