Controlled release of doxorubicin from gelatin-based nanoparticles: theoretical and experimental approach

Abstract

Doxorubicin (DOX), a well-known chemotherapeutic agent, is extensively used for cancer therapy. However, cardiotoxicity and hypersensitivity are the major side effects of DOX. Other issues that need to be addressed include the short half-life, low stability, and high rate of drug release. An injectable drug delivery system (DDS) composed of pH-responsive crosslinked gelatin nanoparticles (Ge-NPs) is reported to lessen the side effects and address the aforementioned obstacles. Ge-NPs were made via a two-step desolvation procedure with two distinct concentrations of 5 wt% (Ge-NPs-5) and 10 wt% (Ge-NPs-10). The physicochemical properties of the Ge-NPs were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The mean diameter of the Ge-NPs was measured at pH 7.4, 5.0, and 3.0. Doxorubicin was successfully loaded into the Ge-NPs, with encapsulation efficiencies of 65.12% (Ge-NPs-5) and 53.7% (Ge-NPs-10). Moreover, artificial neural networks (ANNs) were used to predict the cumulative release of DOX under different experimental conditions. ANNs exhibited considerably improved prediction ability and there was good agreement between the ANN's anticipated and experimentally observed drug release data. Overall, this study presents the synthesis of Ge-NPs for controlled drug release and the utilization of the ANN model as a tool to predict the release of DOX under different pH conditions.