Synthesis and characterization of hybrid nanocarrier layered double hydroxide grafted by polyethylene glycol and gemcitabine

For the past few years, organic-inorganic hybrid nanocarriers have been widely explored for effective drug delivery and preferable disease treatments. In this article, hydrothermal method was utilized to prepare fine dispersed layered double hydroxide (Mg-Al LDH) suspension. Polyethylene glycol (PEG) was grafted on the surface of LDH lamella in order to improve the dispersibility of LDH. Besides, the anti-cancer drug gemcitabine was grafted on the surface of LDH lamellas through chemical grafting. Hence a novel new type of organic-inorganic hybrid drug delivery system LDH-mPEG-Gemcitabine was obtained. In addition, the siRNA was intercalated into the LDH interlamination by ion exchange method to realize drug and gene co-delivery. The loading capacity of LDH and LDH-mPEG-Gemcitabine was evaluated by agarose gel electrophoresis. The characterization by laser particle size analyzer, TEM, FT-IR, XRD, in vitro cell viability and in vitro drug release demonstrated that LDH-mPEG-Gemcitabine possessed fine dispersibility, uniform morphology and particle size, fine biocompatibility, ideal drug loading and releasing capacity and held great potential to be used as a desired co-delivery system for drug and gene.

Automated summary

In this study, a novel organic-inorganic hybrid drug delivery system LDH-mPEG-Gemcitabine was prepared using hydrothermal method, with characteristics of fine dispersibility, uniform morphology, fine biocompatibility, ideal drug loading and releasing capacity. The potential of LDH-mPEG-Gemcitabine as a co-delivery system for drug and gene was demonstrated through various characterization experiments.