Solid phase extraction of doxorubicin using molecularly imprinted polymer coated magnetite nanospheres prior to its spectrofluorometric determination

This work reports on the synthesis of a doxorubicin-imprinted polymer nanoadsorbent (DOXMNSs). The imprinted polymer was coated on the surface of magnetite nanospheres. The synthesized DOXMNSs have been characterized using FT-IR, XRD, VSM and TEM measurements. The prepared nanoadsorbent could well disperse in the sample medium and could selectively remove the drug from an aqueous medium before its magnetic separation, under the optimum condition. The optimum pH (i.e., pH = 7.5) has a good match with the normal cellular fluid pH, and the removal efficiency decreased significantly by decreasing the pH. The results give promise of a magnetic drug carrier for cancer therapy purposes. On the other hand, using the proposed method, sensitive doxorubicin determination in the linear concentration range of 2.0-150.0 ng mL(-1) with a detection limit of 1.3 ng mL(-1) could be achieved. The urine samples analyses results showed that a powerful method for the drug determination has been proposed.