Introduction: Expansion of efficacious theranostic systems is of pivotal significance for medicine and human healthcare. Magnetic nanoparticles (MNPs) are known as drug delivery system and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) contrast agent. MNPs as drug carriers have attracted significant attention because of the delivery of drugs loaded onto MNPs to solid tumors, maintaining them in the target site by an external electromagnetic field, and subsequently releasing drugs in a controlled manner. On the other hand, it is believed that MNPs possess high potential as MRI contrast agents. The aim of this work was to payload curcumin into dextran coated MNPs and investigate their potential as theranostic systems for controlled drug delivery and MRI imaging. Methods: MNPs were synthesized as a core and coated with dextran as polymeric shell to provide steric stabilization. Curcumin as anticancer drug was selected to be loaded into NPs. To characterize the synthesized NPs, various techniques (e.g., DLS, FESEM, FT-IR, XRD, and VSM) were utilized. In vitro drug release of curcumin was evaluated at 37˚C at the pH value of 5.4 and 7.4.The feasibility of employment of dextran coated MNPs as MRI contrast agents were also studied. Results: Formulations prepared from dextran coated MNPs showed high loading (13%) and encapsulation efficiency (95%). In vitro release study performed in the phosphate-buffered saline (PBS, pH= 7.4, 5.4) revealed that the dextran coated MNPs possess sustained release behavior at least for 4 days with the high extent of drug release in acidic media. Vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM) analysis proved the superparamagnetic properties of the dextran coated MNPs with relatively high-magnetization value indicating that they were sufficiently sensitive to external magnetic fields as magnetic drug carriers. Furthermore, dextran coated MNPs exhibited high potential as T2 contrast agents for MRI. Conclusion: Based on our findings, we propose the dextran coated MNPs as promising nanosystem for the delivery of various drugs such as curcumin and MRI contrast agent.

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This study prepared a novel three‐dimensional nanocomposite scaffold by the surface modification of PCL/chitosan nanofiber/net with alginate hydrogel microlayer, hoping to have the privilege of both nanofibers and hydrogels simultaneously. Bead free randomly oriented nanofiber/net (NFN) structure composed of chitosan and polycaprolactone (PCL) was fabricated by electrospinning method. The low surface roughness, good hydrophilicity, and high porosity were obtained from the NFN structure. Then, the PCL/chitosan nanofiber/net was coated with a microlayer of alginate containing neurotrophin‐3 (NT‐3) and conjunctiva mesenchymal stem cells (CJMSCs) as a new stem cell source. According to the cross‐sectional FESEM, the scaffold shows a two‐layer structure with interconnected pores in the range of 20 μm diameter. The finding revealed that the surface modification of nanofiber/net by alginate hydrogel microlayer caused lower inflammatory response and higher proliferation of CJMSCs than the unmodified scaffold. The initial burst release of NT‐3 was 69% in 3 days which followed by a sustained release up to 21 days. The RT‐PCR analysis showed that the expression of Nestin, MAP‐2, and β‐tubulin III genes were increased 6, 5.4, and 8.8‐fold, respectively. The results revealed that the surface‐modified biomimetic scaffold possesses enhanced biocompatibility and could successfully differentiate CJMSCs to the neuron‐like cells.

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