“Magnetic Drug Delivery Devices: Characterization and Swelling Studies”

JIMENA GONZÁLEZ; VERÓNICA LASSALLE; VERA ALVAREZ

Congreso; XVIII congreso argentino de Bioingeniería. VII Jornadas de Ingeniería Clínica. 2º Taller de Órganos Artificiales, Biomateriales e Ingeniería de Tejidos; 2011

ABSTRACT Magnetic gels represent a new type of composite and consist of small magnetic particles, dispersed in a highly elastic polymeric matrix. In addition, due to their sensitivities to both magnetic field and temperature, thermo sensitive polymer magnetic microspheres offer a high potentiality in the design of a targeting drug delivery system, which is considered a safe and effective way for tissue-specific release of drugs. The aim of this work was to obtain and characterize ferrogels and magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) able to absorb or release a drug under magnetic fields. For this purpose, polyvinylalcohol (PVA) ferrogels and chitosan (CS)/MNPs were synthesized. Ferrogels showed dimensional stability, capability of swell in bovine serum albumin (BSA) solution and a super paramagnetic behavior. The nanoparticles sizes were comprised between 20-35 nm containing the functional groups of CS. The potential of these materials as protein adsorbents was evaluated by physical adsorption of a model protein, BSA. The adsorption efficiency was studied using both ferrogels and nanoparticles as supports. The preliminary results indicate that both materials are very promissory regarding the possibility to design drug delivery devices, biosensors, among other biomedical devices. Keywords: drug delivery, ferrogel, magnetic nanoparticles.