Rutin: a Flavonoid Precursor for Synthesis of ZnFe2O4 Nanoparticles; Electrochemical Study of Zinc Ferrite-chitosan Nanogel for Doxorubicin Delivery

The use of core-shell nanoparticles as controlled drug delivery vehicles has proven successful, yet their production and application require costly and toxic chemicals. We hereby use a natural glycosylated flavonoid (rutin) for synthesis of a nanocarrier for doxorubicin delivery. For this target, a convenient two-step synthesis was processed including a synthesis of bio-zinc ferrite nanoparticles without N2 gas and chitosan coating (CS; bio-zincferrite@chitosan). The as-synthesized magnetic nanogel was characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transformed infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and electro-analytical methods including cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopies. The collapse/swell potential of the coated CS layers of the bio-NPs were found to be responsible for the observed pH dependence of doxorubicin delivery. Results exhibited the drug release of bio-nanogel can be induced at pH ranging from 6 to 7. Therefore, capacity and efficiency parameters of the anti-cancer drug onto the NPs were obtained as equal to 43.5% and 78.6%. The present work provides a simple method to fabricate smart pH-responsive nanogel for cancer therapy.