A magnetic/pH dual-sensitive nanocarrier based on biopolymer-grafted mesoporous Fe3O4@SiO2 for imatinib delivery: Fabrication, characterization, and study of the in-vitro release kinetics

Stimuli-responsive nanomaterials have shown significant potential as emerging candidates in biomedical applications because of their ability to release drugs in a controlled manner. In this work, a magnetic mesoporous nanocomposite based on Fe3O4@SiO2, grafted with the pH-sensitive biopolymers (carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and hyaluronic acid (HA)) was successfully prepared to study its loading/releasing capability for the imatinib mesylate (IMT), an anticancer drug. The effects of pH, contact time, starting drug concentration, temperature, and sorbent dosage on sorption efficiency were thoroughly investigated. The maximum sorption capacity was 116.2 mg/g at 298 K. The sorption rate reached 0.011 g/mg min-1 with a sorbent dosage of 1 g/L. The cumulative drug release behavior of the IMT-loaded HA/CMC/Fe3O4@SiO2 was studied in phosphatebuffered saline at pH 7.4 and pH 5.6 for 48 h at 37 degrees C. Notably, the nanocarrier exhibited pH-sensitive release kinetics, with approximately 55 % and 96 % of the total drug released at pH 7.4 and 5.6, respectively. Kinetic modeling revealed that the drug release mechanism followed an anomalous non-Fickian diffusion mechanism, best described by the Peppas-Sahlin model. The present study demonstrates the potential of the developed magnetic mesoporous nanocomposite as an efficient and pH-responsive drug delivery system for targeted cancer therapy.