In Situ Injectable Drug-loaded pH/Temperature Responsive Hydrogel with Application to Tumor Therapy
JIANG Li1, TANG Zhaomin1,*, ZHAO Jianqing1, LI Shijie1, LI Haoyu1, YANG Yining1, PAN Xiao2, WANG Xinming3,*
1 School of New Energy and Materials, Southwest Petroleum University, Chengdu 610500, China 2 School of Pharmacy, Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu 610500, China 3 Department of Pharmacy, The First Affiliated Hospital of Chengdu Medical College, Chengdu 610500, China
Abstract: Conventional chemotherapy, though has achieved certain success in cancer treatment, still faces obvious shortcomings including non-specific therapy and serious side effects, intensifying the need for a more precise and effective alternation. In this study, an injectable pH and temperature dual-responsive hydrogel F127/PEI/4PCL-CBA (FECC) was developed. Using pentaerythritol (PETP) as the initiator and SnCl2 as the catalyst, four-armed star-shaped polycaprolactone (4PCL) was synthesized through the ring opening polymerization reaction of ε-caprolactone (ε-CL). Then the 4PCL was esterified with p-benzaldehyde carboxylic acid (p-CBA) to prepare 4PCL-CBA. And the FECC hydrogel was successfully prepared by mixing 4PCL-CBA, pluronic F127 and polyethyleneimine (PEI) aqueous solution in a certain proportion, which can be crosslinked at 37 ℃ and has good injectability. The doxorubicin (DOX)-loaded FECC hydrogel exhibited a 168-hour DOX release rate of 45.3% with a stable and unhasty release phenomenon under a tumor-like weakly acidic condition, and a cumulative DOX release of only 19.8% in the neutral environment simulating blood circulation. This demonstrates the effective controlled release of the DOX@FECC hydrogel in vitro. In the cell experiment, FECC hydrogel displayed no obvious toxicity to normal vascular endothelial cells (EC), while DOX@FECC hydrogel could signi-ficantly kill the human breast cancer cells (4T1).
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