Effect of protamine on Fe3O4@CS@GFTN composite magnetic nanoparticles

Abstract

Fe3O4@chitosan (CS)@Gefitinib (GFTN) core-shell structure composite magnetic nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared by chemical coprecipitation method in this study. In addition, protamine was doped in Fe3O4 cores to prepare Fe3O4@protamine@CS@GFTN core-shell structure composite NPs, in order to increase the loading of GFTN in composite NPs. They were characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) and spectrophotometer. The results show that the average size of Fe3O4@CS@GFTN and Fe3O4@protamine@CS@GFTN composite NPs is approximately 19 and 21[Formula: see text]nm, respectively. The saturation magnetizations of composite magnetic NPs and corresponding magnetic fluids are 57.20, 20.79, 59.58 and 19.75[Formula: see text]emu/g, respectively. The loading of GFTN in composite NPs was measured by a spectrophotometer to be about 13.5% and 27.6%, respectively. The addition of protamine increased the loading of GFTN two times, indicating that it will play an important role in the management of lung diseases.