Saurav Ghoshal, Swatantra Kumar Singh Kushwaha, Mayank Srivastava and Pallavi Tiwari
The present work was an attempt to investigate the potentialities of multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNT) as a carrier for targeting 6 Mercaptopurine to cancer tissues. MWCNTs were carboxy functionalized and then loaded with 6 Mercaptopurine (6MP) using the Incipient Wetness impregnation method to produce 6MP loaded CNTs. The conjugate was characterized for drug loading efficiency, in vitro drug release and release kinetics. The result indicated that a maximum of about 65% entrapment was achieved. The loaded nanotubes were shown to release the drug for more than 20 hours and thus controlling the release. The release was found to follow the Zero Order and Hixson Crowell release pattern. Our work established a novel, easy to prepare formulation of MWCNTs with better drug loading efficiency and increased dispersibility of CNTs and thus improved bioavailability at cancer site with reduced systemic toxicity.
