The preparation of magnetic nanoparticles coated with chitosan-prindopril erbumine was accomplished and confirmed by X-ray diffraction, TEM, magnetic measurements, thermal analysis and infrared spectroscopic studies. X-ray diffraction and TEM results demonstrated that the magnetic nanoparticles were pure iron oxide phase, having a spherical shape with a mean diameter of 6 nm, compared to 15 nm after coating with chitosan-prindopril erbumine (FCPE). Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy study shows that the coating of iron oxide nanoparticles takes place due to the presence of some bands that were emerging after the coating process, which belong to the prindopril erbumine (PE). The thermal stability of the PE in an FCPE nanocomposite was remarkably enhanced. The release study showed that around 89% of PE could be released within about 93 hours by a phosphate buffer solution at pH 7.4, which was found to be of sustained manner governed by first order kinetic. Compared to the control (untreated), cell viability study in 3T3 cells at 72 h post exposure to both the nanoparticles and the pure drug was found to be sustained above 80% using different doses.

Iron oxide nanoparticles (FNPs) were synthesized due to low toxicity and their ability to immobilize biological materials on their surfaces by the coprecipitation of iron salts in ammonia hydroxide followed by coating it with polyethylene glycol (PEG) to minimize the aggregation of iron oxide nanoparticles and enhance the effect of nanoparticles for biological applications. Then, the FNPs–PEG was loaded with perindopril erbumine (PE), an antihypertensive compound to form a new nanocomposite (FPEGPE). Transmission electron microscopy results showed that there are no significant differences between the sizes of FNPs and FPEGPE nanocomposite. The existence of PEG–PE was supported by the FTIR and TGA analyses. The PE loading (10.3 %) and the release profiles from FPEGPE nanocomposite were estimated using ultraviolet–visible spectroscopy which showed that up to 60.8 and 83.1 % of the adsorbed drug was released in 4223 and 1231 min at pH 7.4 and 4.8, respectively. However, the release of PE was completed very fast from a physical mixture (FNPs–PEG–PE) after 5 and 7 min at pH 4.8 and 7.4, respectively, which reveals that the release of PE from the physical mixture is not in the sustained-release manner. Cytotoxicity study showed that free PE presented slightly higher toxicity than the FNPs and FPEGPE nanocomposite. Therefore, the decrease toxicity against mouse normal fibroblast (3T3) cell lines prospective of this nanocomposite together with controlled-release behavior provided evidence of the possible beneficial biological activities of this new nanocomposite for nanopharmaceutical applications for both oral and non-oral routes.