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Abstract
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Cancer is one of the leading causes of death in the world. Cancer is caused by the
uncontrolled growth of cells. Breast cancer is the third most common cancer in the world.
Chemotherapy, radiation therapy, surgery, etc. are common methods for treating cancer. In
these methods, in addition to cancer cells, healthy cells are also damaged. For this reason,
they are looking for methods that purposefully transfer anticancer agents to cancer cells. For
this reason, the targeted drug delivery in nano scale for treatment of cancer is examined [1,2].
In this study, chitosan nanoparticles were synthesized by ionic gelation method. To improve
the synthesis and effective entrapment of curcumin (anti-cancer compound), the role of
several factors including chitosan concentration, chitosan to TPP linker ratio and drug
concentration were investigated [3]. Using spectrophotometric technique, FTIR analysis and
electron microscopy (SEM), the fabrication of nanoparticles and the entrapment of curcumin
in nanoparticles were confirmed. The results also showed that the highest rate of curcumin
trapping occurs in the chitosan bed with one percent. The effect of using detergents such as
Tween 80 had an adverse effects on the entrapment of curcumin in the nanoparticle, so that in
the absence of Tween 80, maximum entrapment was observed, which is probably due to the
severe hydrophobic properties of curcumin. Among the different ratios of chitosan to TPP, a
ratio of 2 to 1 was the best for making nanoparticles and trapping curcumin. Also, chitosan
nanoparticles showed better release of curcumin at pH and physiological temperatures in this
ratio. At high and low concentrations of the TPP linker, the nanoparticle structure probably
does not have the desired cross-linking to curcumin entrapment and its release [4].
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