Co-Delivery of Anticancer Drugs Via Poly(Ionic Crosslinked Chitosan-Palladium) Nanocapsules: Targeting More Effective and Sustainable Cancer Therapy

Hybrid drug delivery has generated considerable interest because of the prospect of circumventing cancer cells' acquired resistance to a particular medication when prolonged use. In this context, a new nanocomposite composed of PdNPs and polyionic cross-linked chitosan (PICCS@Pd) has been in situ prepared and used as a nanocarrier for the delivery of doxorubicin (DOX) and 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) separately as well as in a cocktail. The successful formation of the nanocarrier and its drug-loaded nanocapsules has been affirmed by the findings of various physicochemical characterization techniques. The new nanocapsules exhibited good entrapment efficiency and loading capacity for DOX, 5-FU, and DOX+5-FU. The obtained release profiles clearly demonstrate PICCS's ability to release medicines in a more sustained and prolonged way. In vitro cytotoxicity studies demonstrated that the co-drugs nanocapsules have amazing inhibitory effects on the proliferation of tumor cells (MCF-7 and HT-29) with minimal hemolytic activity, as compared to DOX and 5-FU monotherapy.