Cross-linked chitosan/hydroxylated boron nitride nanocomposites for co-delivery of curcumin and 5-fluorouracil towards human colon cancer cells

High global incidence of cancer mortality leads to an alarming situation to discover and introduce ever more fascinating materials for drug delivery applications. To improve the effectiveness of the drugs, multi drug co-delivery using carbohydrates is a fascinating method for cancer therapy with synergistic effect. Here, a novel cross-linked chitosan/hydroxylated boron nitride nanocomposites matrix composite is utilized to overcome the multidrug resistance. Curcumin (CUR) and 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) are loaded into the matrix nanocomposite individually and in conjugated form (5-FU + CUR). Dual-drug-loaded systems were compared with mono-drug-loaded systems. The prepared composites were analysed using various characterizations. The prepared composites showed high encapsulation efficiencies of 85.4% and 91.2% for 5-FU and CUR, respectively. In vitro experiments on human colorectal cancer cells (HT-29) were carried out. Moreover the administration of this chitosan-supported OH–BNNS with 5-FU + CUR leads to the synergistic anticancer activity on HT-29 cells.