Fabrication and Characterization of a Novel Anticancer
Drug Delivery System: Salecan/Poly(methacrylic acid) Semi-interpenetrating
Polymer Network Hydrogel
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Abstract
Salecan
is a novel linear extracellular polysaccharide with a linear backbone
of 1–3-linked glucopyranosyl units. Salecan is suitable for
preparing hydrogels for biomedical applications due to its prominent
physicochemical and biological profiles. In this contribution, a variety
of innovative semi-interpenetrating polymer network (semi-IPN) hydrogels
consisting of Salecan and poly(methacrylic acid) (PMAA) were developed
via free radical polymerization for controlled drug delivery. The
successful fabrication of the semi-IPNs was verified by Fourier transform
infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and thermogravimetric
(TGA) measurements. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and rheology
analyses demonstrated that the morphological and mechanical behaviors
of the resultant hydrogels were strongly affected by the contents
of Salecan and cross-linker <i>N</i>,<i>N</i>′-methylenebis(acrylamide)
(BIS). Moreover, the swelling properties of these hydrogels were systematically
investigated, and the results indicated that they exhibited pH sensitivity.
The drug delivery applications of such fabricated hydrogels were further
evaluated from which doxorubicin (Dox) was chosen as a model drug
for in vitro release and cell viability studies. It was found that
the Dox release from the Dox-loaded hydrogels was significantly accelerated
when the pH of the release media decreased from 7.4 to 5.0. Toxicity
assays confirmed that the blank hydrogels had negligible toxicity
to normal cells, whereas the Dox-loaded hydrogels remained high in
cytotoxicity for A549 and HepG2 cancer cells. All of these attributes
implied that the new proposed semi-IPNs serve as potential drug delivery
platforms for cancer therapy