Conventional anticancer agents exhibit various side effects resulting from non-selective targeting, drug resistance within cancer cells, and insufficient accumulation of therapeutic in the target tumor. It is critical to develop a drug delivery system capable of successfully encapsulating and releasing anticancer agents that can be triggered at the target site. Our strategy is to synthesize a controlled-release drug delivery system composed of the biopolymer chitosan that has been crosslinked with transition metals. Transition metals could potentially fulfill two roles, one as cross linking agent as well as therapeutic. We are investigating the formation of nanoparticles via the ionotropic gelation of phosphonate-modified chitosan in the presence of copper(2+) and covalent crosslinking of chitosan with cobalt(3+). Copper-chitosan (CuCs) nanoparticles appear to be 15-80 nm in diameter while Cobalt-chitosan (CoCs) nanoparticle has larger size of 100-137nm. In order to enhance the specificity of target binding, the nanoparticle surface will be decorated with peptides that bind to the transferrin receptor, which is over expressed in cancer cells. Phage display was employed to identify peptides with high affinity to transferrin.

Nanoparticles composed of chitosan crosslinked with transition metals as drug delivery in cancer targeting

247th National Meeting (2014)

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