Preparation, Characterization and In vitro Toxicity Study of Antiparasitic Drugs Loaded onto Functionalized MWCNTs

This work focuses on the preparation of immobilized ivermectin (IVM) and essential oil carvacrol (Cav), as models of antiparasitic drugs, on functionalized multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) using sol-gel technique. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), transmission electron microscope (TEM) and particle size distribution analysis were used to characterize the prepared materials. In addition, the in vitro cytotoxic effect was investigated against normal fibroblast cell line (BHK-21) using SRB assay. Also, toxicity to Rhipicephalus annulatus female ticks was also performed in vitro. The FTIR and TEM results showed that the drugs loaded on the functionalized MWCNTs were successfully prepared through covalent bonding with a particle size range of around 407 and 268 nm in the case of IVM and Cav, respectively. The cytotoxic activity showed that the drugs loaded had low cytotoxic effects of about 4.5 and 4.4 % relative to the free IVM (8.5 %) and Cav (7.8 %), respectively, at 100 mu g/mL concentration. In addition, the loaded drugs displayed high ticks mortality at about 100 % compared to the free IVM (23.3 %) and Cav (26.7 %), respectively at 250 mu g/mL concentration after 72 h of exposure.