Designing pH-Dependent Systems Based on Nanoscale Calcium Carbonate for the Delivery of an Antitumor Drug.

Materials based on calcium carbonate (CaCO) are widely used in biomedical research (e.g., as carriers of bioactive substances). The biocompatibility of CaCO and dependence of its stability on pH make these materials promising transporters of therapeutic agents to sites with low pH such as a tumor tissue. In this work, we developed an approach to the preparation of nanoscale particles based on CaCO (CaNPs) up to 200 nm in size by coprecipitation and analyzed the interaction of the nanoparticles with an anticancer drug: orubicin (). We also showed a prolonged pH-dependent release of from a CaNP nanocarrier and effective inhibition of cancer cell growth by a CaCO-and--based composite (CaNP-) in in vitro models.