Folic acid functionalized boron nitride oxide as targeted drug delivery system for fludarabine and cytarabine anticancer drugs: A DFT study

Development and in vitro evaluation of donepezil hydrochloride-loaded thermo-responsive polymer grafted molybdenum disulfide nanosheets: Modeling using response surface methodology

Nanocarriers are utilized to deliver bioactive substances in the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. In this work, we prepared donepezil hydrochloride-loaded molybdenum disulfide modified thermo-responsive polymer as the thermo-responsive nanocarrier. Then, glycine was grafted to the surface of the polymer to improve the targeting and sustained release. The morphology, crystallinity, chemical bonding, and thermal behavior of nanoadsorbent were fully characterized by field emission scanning electron microscopes, energy dispersive X-ray, X-ray diffraction, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermo-gravimetric measurement. Response surface methodology with the central composite design was applied to optimize the sorption key factors such as pH solution (A: 5-9), contact time (B: 10-30 min), and temperature (C: 30-50 °C). Non-linear isotherm modeling confirmed that the sorption of the drug follows the Ferundlich model based on higher correlation coefficient values (R² =0.9923) and lower errors values (root means square errors: 0.16 and Chi-square: 0.10), suggesting a heterogeneous multilayer surface sorption. The non-linear sorption kinetic modeling revealed that the pseudo-second-order kinetic model well-fitted the sorption data of the drug on the nanoadsorbent surface based on higher R² values (R² =0.9876) and lower errors values (root means square errors: 0.05 and Chi-square: 0.02). The in vitro drug release experiment of donepezil hydrochloride shown that about 99.74 % of drug release was found to be occurred at pH= 7.4 (T = 45 °C) within 6 h, whereas about 66.32 % of drug release occurred at pH= 7.4 (T = 37 °C). The release of donepezil hydrochloride from as prepared drug delivery system has shown a sustained release profile, which was fitted to Korsmeyer-Peppas kinetics.

Boron Nitride Nanoparticles Loaded with a Boron-Based Hybrid as a Promising Drug Carrier System for Alzheimer's Disease Treatment

The search for an innovative and effective drug delivery system that can carry and release targeted drugs with enhanced activity to treat Alzheimer’s disease has received much attention in the last decade. In this study, we first designed a boron-based drug delivery system for effective treatment of AD by integrating the folic acid (FA) functional group into hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) nanoparticles (NPs) through an esterification reaction. The hBN-FA drug carrier system was assembled with a new drug candidate and a novel boron-based hybrid containing an antioxidant as BLA, to constitute a self-assembled AD nano transport system. We performed molecular characterization analyses by using UV-vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectrophotometer (FTIR), scanning electron microscope (SEM), Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDS) and Zeta potential investigations. Second, we tested the anti-Alzheimer properties of the carrier system on a differentiated neuroblastoma (SHSY5-Y) cell line, which was exposed to beta-amyloid (1–42) peptides to stimulate an experimental in vitro AD model. Next, we performed cytotoxicity analyses of synthesized molecules on the human dermal fibroblast cell line (HDFa) and the experimental AD model. Cytotoxicity analyses showed that even higher concentrations of the carrier system did not enhance the toxicological outcome in HDFa cells. Drug loading analyses reported that uncoated hBN nano conjugate could not load the BLA, whereas the memantine loading capacity of hBN was 84.3%. On the other hand, memantine and the BLA loading capacity of the hBN-FA construct was found to be 95% and 97.5%, respectively. Finally, we investigated the neuroprotective properties of the nano carrier systems in the experimental AD model. According to the results, 25 µg/mL concentrations of hBN-FA+memantine (94% cell viability) and hBN-FA+BLA (99% cell viability) showed ameliorative properties against beta-amyloid (1–42) peptide toxicity (50% cell viability). These results were generated through the use of flow cytometry, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and antioxidant assays. In conclusion, the developed drug carrier system for AD treatment showed promising potential for further investigations and enlightened neuroprotective capabilities of boron molecules to treat AD and other neurodegenerative diseases. On the other hand, enzyme activity, systematic toxicity analyses, and animal studies should be performed to understand neuroprotective properties of the designed carrier system comprehensively.