STARCH-CHITOSAN MODIFIED BLEND AS LONG-TERM CONTROLLED DRUG RELEASE FOR CANCER THERAPY

Abstract

The conventional drug delivery system has serious limitations. These limitations can be overcome by using the smart materials to produce an effective drug delivery system. Corn starch cross-linked chitosan using potassium persulfate as an accelerator with different ratios of corn starch/chitosan blends were prepared as smart materials for drug delivery system. The hydroxyurea drug was loaded in smart materials blends to evaluate the efficacy of new materials on therapy of Rhabdomyosarcoma cancer cell line (RD). The FT-IR results revealed that the reaction was occurred between blends materials (starch/chitosan). SEM tests illustrated that the different morphologies were obtained in blend films surface. The rate of drug release was sensitive to pH and significantly increased at pH 2.2 as compared to pH 7.4. Furthermore, the percentage of swelling was higher in acidic solution than in neutral solution. It was concluded that the starch/chitosan smart materials may be suitable for medical applications like drug delivery system to RD cell line as confirmed by the availability and morphology test of RD cell line.