Abstract:

The intercalation of tegafur into Zn-Al layered double hydroxide (LDHs) with Zn／Al molar ratio of 2.0 was carried out using coprecipitation method to obtain tegafur-LDHs nanohybrids. According to the gallery heights of tegafur-LDHs nanohybrids and sizes of tegafur molecule, a probably morphology of tegafur molecules in the gallery of tegafur-LDHs nanohybrids was suggested,of which the  tegafur molecules were intercalated into the gallery of LDHs with an overlapped bilayer along the long axis vertical-arranged to the LDHs layers. The release kinetics of tegafur from the tegafur-LDHs nanohybrids was respectively investigated in pH=4.8 and 7.2 buffer solutions and pure water (pH=5.65). It was found that the tegafur-LDHs nanohybrids could control the release of tegafur, and the in vitro drug release from the nanohybrids was remarkably lower than that from the corresponding physical mixture, which showed that the drug-nanohybrids could  be considered as a potential drug delivery system. The release rate of tegafur from the tegafur-LDHs nanohybrids at pH=7.2 buffer solution is remarkably lower than that in  pH 4.8 buffer solution, and that at pure water (pH=5.65) is remarkably lower than that in  buffer solutions. In addition, the release processes may fit to the pseudo-second-order release kinetics.

Key words: layered double hydroxides; tegafur; nanohybrids; controlled release