Cellulose/Exosome Nanocarrier for Improved Prolonged Release of 5-Fluorouracil: Preparation, Characterization, Drug Release Behavior and Cytotoxicity

Abstract Designing of nanoparticle drug delivery systems and improving the efficacy of anticancer drugs are a great deal of effort in the recent years. In this study, a novel biocompatible nanocarrier based on bacterial cellulose (BC) in presence of exosome (Exo) was prepared to controlled release of 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), (5-FU.Exo@BC). The physicochemical properties of 5-FU.Exo@BC was characterized using field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) techniques that confirmed the successful preparation of 5-FU.Exo@BC. The release behavior of 5-FU.Exo@BC compared to 5-FU and 5-FU@BC demonstrated a significant sustained release during 162 h. The release mechanism of the above three systems followed Korsmeyer-peppas with non-Fickian diffusion for 5-FU@BC and 5-FU.Exo@BC. In addition, the viability of HT-29 cells (human colon cancer cell line), towards BC, 5-FU@BC and 5-FU.Exo@BC indicated the promising efficacy of 5-FU into 5-FU.Exo@BC. Subsequently, the prepared bio-nanocomposite could be proposed as a potential drug delivery system with effective controlled-release function.