Chitosan-grafted-poly(methacrylic acid)/graphene oxide nanocomposite as a pH-responsive de novo cancer chemotherapy nanosystem

The aim of this study was the design and development of a novel de novo drug delivery system for cancer chemotherapy. For this purpose, chitosan (CS) functionalized using phthalic anhydride followed by 4-cyano, 4-[(phenylcarbothioyl) sulfanyl] pentanoic acid as a chain transfer agent (CTA) to afford CS-CTA macroinitiator. The synthesized CS-CTA macroinitiator was then copolymerized with methacrylic acid (MAA) monomer using reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization technique to produce chitosan-graft-poly(methacrylic acid) (CS-g-PMAA) graft copolymer. Afterward, graphene oxide (GO) nanosheets were incorporated into the synthesized copolymer through the physical interactions. The CS-g-PMAA/GO nanocomposite was loaded with doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) as a universal anticancer drug. The biocompatibility, DOX-loading capacity, and pH dependent drug release behavior of the developed nanocomposite were also investigated. As the experimental results, as well as superior biological and physicochemical features of CS and GO, we envision that the developed CS-g-PMAA/GO nanocomposite may be applied as de novo drug delivery nanosystem for cancer chemotherapy.