Investigation of the adsorption and release kinetics of the anticancer drug, methotrexate, from chitosan nanocapsules modified by caffeic acid and oleic acid

This work compared the in vitro effects of different fatty acid grafted chitosan (CS) surfaces as nanocarriers for targeted delivery of methotrexate (MTX) anticancer drug. Surface modification of CS with fatty acids, namely oleic acid (OA) and caffeic acid (CA), has been performed. The formation of the nanocapsules was investigated using scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The adsorption isotherms data were better expressed by Langmuir isotherm model and the adsorption kinetics data fitted well to the quasi -second order kinetic model. The maximum sorption capacities of CS-OA and CS-CA for MTX were 42.19 and 49.26 mg g-1, respectively. After loading MTX onto CS-CA and CS-OA, the drug release rate was evaluated in the simulated stomach and intestinal environments for 30.5 h. The findings shown that 67% of MTX loaded in CS-CA and 45% of MTX loaded in CS-OA were released after 30.5 h. Moreover, encapsulation efficiencies of MTX from CS-CA and CS-OA were 62.25 % and 53.61%, respectively. The five kinetic models were used to analyze the drug release kinetics in these two drug delivery systems, and the results were compatible with the Hixson-Crowell model.