INSTITUTUL NAÅ¢IONAL DE CERCETARE-DEZVOLTARE - ICECHIM

2. Multifunctional materials and nanocomposites - OHYBRID MATERIALS BASED ON ZSM-5/DOXORUBICIN/CHITOSAN AS DRUGCARRIERS FOR CANCER THERAPYCristina Ileana COVALIU 1 , Eugeniu VASILE 2 , Daniela CULITA 3 ,Ioana JITARU 1 , Horia IOVU 11 Univeristy Politehica of Bucharest2 Metav Research & Development3 “Ilie Murgulescu” Institute of Physical ChemistryAbstractThe need of cancer treatments increases while the number of people which die due tothis ill increases, this is the reason why seek an alternative treatment whit less site effects andhigh efficiency is inevitable. ZSM-5 zeolite with high specific areas containing drugs andbiocompatible polymers may represent an useful alternative (Fig.1). The objectives of thisresearch were the preparation and characterization of two types of hybrids based on Na-ZSM-5 and NH 4 -ZSM-5 containing doxorubicin and chitosan and used them as cytotoxic drugcarriers systems in cancer therapy. The Na and NH 4 -ZSM-5 were synthesized by sol-gelmethod combined with hydrothermal method starting from aluminum nitrate and sodiumsilicate using tetrapropylammonium hydroxide as template agent. The products formed werewashed, dried and calcined at 580 0 C respectively. The final hybrids containing zeolitedoxorubicin-chitosanand the intermediar materials obtained were characterized by XRD,FTIR, TEM and thermal analysis. Also, nitrogen adsorption-desorption isotherms weredetermined revealing the specific surface area values and the pore size distribution.Furthermore, the pattern of doxorubicin release from the chitosan–ZSM-5 hybrids carrierswas affected by pH.Fig. 1 Scheme of the hybrid materials consisting of ZSM5 zeolite, doxorubicin (CD-cytotoxicdrug) and chitosanAcknowledgementsAuthors recognize financial support from the European Social Fund throughPOSDRU/89/1.5/S/54785 project: “Postdoctoral Program for Advanced Research in the fieldof nanomaterials”.