SYNTHESIS OF PEG CAPPED METHOTREXATE LOADED SILVER NANOPARTICLES BY CHEMICAL REDUCTION METHOD

Abstract

Background: Chemotherapeutics, the first line treatment, being used world wide each day by millions of people to combat cancer. Due to their specificity, insolubility, large molecular size and most importantly their adverse side effects these drugs were conjugated with silver nanoparticles. In this study, Methotrexate (MTX) an anticancerous drug was bound to silver nanoparticle by chemical reduction method and then capped with PEG-6000 to make it biocompatible. The invitro hemolytic activity of the conjugated nanoparticles (AgMTX) was checked before and after pegylation and also of pure drug. Results: the synthesis, conjugation, size and shape of AgMTX was determined through FTIR, UV-Vis and TEM. Stability of nanoparticles against temperature and salt concentration was checked and particles were found to be stable. PEG-AgMTX showed significantly low hemolytic behavior in comparison to AgMTX and MTX. Conclusion: Nanoconjugates showed more hemocompatibilty (caused less than 5 % Hemolysis) and enhanced biological activity as compared to parent drug and also the amount of drug required for its activity was reduced to less than 50