Nanopartículas magnéticas aplicadas na liberação controlada de fármacos

Abstract

According to INCA, cancer is the second biggest cause of death in the country. Furthermore, conventional treatments for the disease, chemotherapy and radiotherapy, are not able to select the diseased cells, which leads to undesirable effects for the patient. In order to optimize the treatment of cancer and other diseases, nanodevices have been studied for application in controlled release of drugs. Magnetic nanoparticles are used as magnetic cores, in order to direct the drug to the desired area. A polymer is used as biocompatible material, which is responsible for encapsulating the drug in the nanoparticles and allowing its release by an external stimulus (heating). In order to develop a nanodevice, magnetic iron oxide nanoparticles were synthesized by coprecipitation technique (sonochemically assisted or not) and functionalized with alkoxysilanes (APMTS and MPTS), which allowed it encapsulation in different polymers, like poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) and polycaprolactone. The characterization of the nanodevices was carried out by XRD, SEM and DLS techniques, among others, confirming the development of a small-scale device with a narrow range of size distribution and adequate stability required for application in the biomedical field. The spectroscopy in the infrared region, and the potentiometric titration curve, was used to confirm the functionalization of the particles and their subsequent encapsulation.