Highly enhanced loading quality of curcumin onto carboxylated folate graphene oxide

This research focuses on loading of curcumin (Cur) anticancer drug onto nanocarriers, based on Graphene Oxide (GO), and improvement of loading eciency. Surface of synthesized GO was modied by Citric Acid (CA) and functionalized by Folic Acid (FA) as a targeting agent. The functionalized GO with CA (CGO) and FA (GO-FA) was analyzed by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR). Furthermore, FA was conjugated to the composite of CGO to prepare a stable and targeted GO. The CGO-FA composite was characterized by FTIR and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) analysis. Thereafter, Cur as a hydrophobic drug was loaded onto GO, CGO, GO-FA, and CGO-FA. The loaded Cur onto GO was characterized by SEM, FTIR, and UV-Vis spectrophotometry. To increase the loading eciency of Cur, the eects of water and ethanol as solvents and the weight ratios of initial Cur to GO (Cur/GO) were evaluated on the loading eciency by response surface methodology. The comparison of the loaded drug eciencies on dierent carriers demonstrated the maximum loading onto CGO, as compared with the other carriers, in optimal conditions. The optimized condition was characterized by 25.6% of water in solution and 1.66 ratio of Cur/GO to achieve the loading eciency of 112.5% and 13.5 ratio of loading eciency/weight of initial Cur, respectively.