Preparation and Characterization of Modified Polyethyleneimine Magnetic Nanoparticles for Cancer Drug Delivery

Magnetic nanoparticles with polymeric coating have great significance in drug delivery purpose. We intended to prepare a modified amphiphilic polymer with targeting susceptibility to reduce side effects to normal cells. In this study polyethyleneimine (PEI) as a polycationic polymer reacted with sebacoyl chloride to make a new amphiphilic polymer and folic acid as a targeting agent to reduce cytotoxicity of polymer and increase specific entrance of nanoparticles to cancerous cells. The obtained polymer (PEI-Sb-FA) was then coated on magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) to stabilize them. The core-shell nanoparticles were characterized by different methods such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), and vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM). Curcumin was finally loaded on PEI-Sb-FA-MNPs and the release behavior was studied in different pH. Curcumin loading of 28.2% was obtained and released drug in acidic pH = 4.5 was more than pH = 7.4, showing drug release sensitivity toward pH of media.