Characterization and in vitro drug release properties of chitosan/acrylamide/gold nanocomposite prepared by gamma irradiation

A nanocomposite of (chitosan/polyacrylamide/gold) (Cs/AAm/Au) and (chitosan/polyacrylamide) (Cs/AAm) hydrogel were performed using gamma radiation and employed as a carrier for Cisplatin cancer drug. The structure and morphology were studied by FTIR and FE-SEM, respectively. XRD and TEM confirmed the formation of the nanoconposite. The average particle size ranged between 13 to 27?nm. EDX estimated that the concentration of Au⁰ nanoparticles in (Cs/AAm/Au) nanocomposite was 0.20%. Both (Cs/AAm) and (Cs/AAm/Au) have higher swelling percent and reached the swelling equilibrium within 6?h. The optimum pH of swelling was at pH 7.2. The maximum Cisplatin drug released was 33% for Cs/AAm hydrogel and 96% for Cs/AAm/Au nanocomposite at pH 7.2 through 320 and 410?min, respectively. The release mechanism was found to be followed the non-Fickian diffusion mechanism for both systems. The cytotoxicity against liver cancer (HepG2) was investigated. Cisplatin drug loaded samples (Cs/AAm) drug loaded hydrogel of concentration 100?μg/ml killed 76.4% of the cells and IC₅₀ reached 29?μg/ml whereas (Cs/AAm/Au) drug loaded nanocomposite killed 84.9 of the cells and IC₅₀ reached 22.7?μg/ml.