Preparation and functional characterization of tumor-targeted folic acid-chitosan conjugated nanoparticles loaded with mitoxantrone

Folic acid conjugated chitosan was prepared by cross-linking reaction with 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl) carbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC), and then used as a template to prepare folic acid-chitosan (FA-CS) conjugated nanoparticles and load mitoxantrone nanoparticles (FA-CSNP/MTX). Drug dissolution testing, CCK-8 method, and confocal microscopy were used to detect their controlled-release capability in different situations and the specific uptake by HONE1 cells. The experimental results show that the nanoparticles have uniform size distribution of 48-58 nm. The highest encapsulation rate of the particles on mitoxantrone hydrochloride (MTX) is (77.5 +/- 1.9)%, and the drug loading efficiency is (18.4 +/- 0.4)%. The sustained release effect, cell growth inhibition activity and targeting effect of the FA-CS/MTX nanoparticles are good in artificial gastric fluid and intestinal fluid. It is demonstrated that the FA-CSNP system is a potentially useful system for the targeted delivery of anticancer drug MTX.