Sonoco Green Decoration of Clinoptilolite with MgO Nanoparticles as a Potential Carrier for 5-Fluorouracil Drug: Loading Behavior, Release Profile, and Cytotoxicity

Natural clinoptilolite was decorated by green MgO nanoparticles (G. MgO/Clino) and characterized as a potential drug delivery system for 5-Fluorouracil drug. The synthetic G. MgO/Clino as carrier exhibits an enhanced loading capacity of 244.5 mg/g which is higher than clinoptilolite (163 mg/g). The loading reaction of 5-FC follows the equilibrium and kinetic properties of Langmuir and Pseudo-first order models, respectively. Therefore, the loaded 5-FC molecules are of homogenous and monolayer forms with Gaussian energy (8.51 kJ/mol) related to physisorption and zeolitic ion exchange processes. Also, the thermodynamic study declared feasible, endothermic, and spontaneous loading reactions of the 5-FC drug. The release study emphasizes a long and continuous profile for 150 h either in gastric buffer (pH 1.2) or intestinal buffer (pH 7.4). The release kinetics follow Higuchi and Hixson-Crowell model in addition to Korsmeyer–Peppas model with diffusion exponent (0.50 at pH 1.2 and 0.47 at pH 7.4). This suggests non-Fickian transport behavior for the released 5-FC molecules by both erosion and diffusion mechanism. The cytotoxicity study on the colorectal normal cell (CCD-18Co) demonstrates significant safety and biocompatibility properties of G. MgO/Clino as a drug carrier. Moreover, the G. MgO/Clino carrier induced the cytotoxic effect on the colon cancer cells (HCT-116) by controlling the diffusion rate and the oxidative effect of the green MgO nanoparticles.