Developing a drug delivery system to target diseased areas attracted considerable attention. The system should achieve its desired therapeutic effect without side effects.
ZnO nanoparticles display great efforts in photodynamic therapy (PDT), due to the ability to generate reactive oxygen species (ROS), Cancer cells are expected to die without damaging healthful cells.
The developed system to deliver the drug is magnetite zinc oxide nanoparticles (Fe3O4@ZnO) core shell system. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) showed formation of magnetite with a unified spherical nanoparticle with core size equal 25 ± 5 nm. The average size for magnetite zinc oxide nanoparticles (Fe3O4@ZnO) after functionalization with (3-aminopropyl) triethoxylsilane (APTES) and loading drug is about 120 ± 10 nm. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image shows the uniform size of the core-shell. The core size of magnetite is equal 53 ± 7 nm, for zinc oxide shell is equal 45 ± 15 nm. To mimic the blood pH, drug release has been studied in phosphate buffer solution (PBS) at pH 7.4.
Besides the mechanical stirring method, ultrasonication was used as external stimuli of drug release. Constant weight of Fe3O4@ZnO loaded with the drug was put into buffer (pH = 7.4). Then, the sol was agitated using ultrasonication. The system follow zero order kinetic in both external stimuli. In conclusion, the developed system has been synthesized as a core /shell drug delivery system using ultrasonication method. The time of drug-release upon using ultasonicaion is five times faster than that caused by mechanical stirring under the same experimental conditions.