Chitosan/Alginate Polyelectrolyte Magnetic Gel Nanoarchitectonics with Tunable Mechanical Properties for Magnetic Hyperthermia and Sustained Release of 5-Fluorouracil
Abstract
Chitosan-based hydrogels hold promise as drug delivery systems for cancer therapy, but the poor mechanical properties often limit the biological application, requiring chemical cross-linking to improve sustained drug release. Besides, the addition of stimulus-responsiveness to chitosan requires chemical modifications that can further affect the gel properties. To overcome these challenges, in this work, a novel chitosan/alginate polyelectrolyte magnetic gel with tunable mechanical properties is developed by pH-triggered self-assembly. The gels could be prepared by a slow/fast pH decrease and blended with magnetic nanoparticles. Manganese-doped ferrite nanoparticles (∼10 nm) with suitable magnetic properties (>70 Am2/kg) and high magnetic hyperthermia heating efficiency (ILP > 3 nHm2/kg) were synthesized via an amino acid-assisted oxidative hydrothermal method. The nanoparticles and self-assembly conditions of the polyelectrolyte complex enabled the tuning of the gels' properties, a fast gelation, and suitable mechanical properties for drug delivery. Notably, gels with a large storage modulus (up to 10 kPa) could be prepared at a low polymer concentration (≤2 wt %). The magnetic gels enabled the sustained release of a hydrophilic chemotherapeutic drug model, 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), under mimetic physiological conditions, outperforming the hydrogels. Moreover, the drug release kinetics was synergistically enhanced under the combined effect of acidic conditions and magnetic…
Read the paper
Related studies
- Quantum dots: synthesis, bioapplications, and toxicity
- A Guide to In Silico Drug Design
- Quantum Computing for Healthcare: A Review
- Automated in Silico Design of Homogeneous Catalysts
- Identification of Novel 3-Hydroxy-pyran-4-One Derivatives as Potent HIV-1 Integrase Inhibitors Using in silico Structure-Based Combinatorial Library Design Approach
- In silico structural elucidation of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase towards the identification of potential Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus inhibitors
Go deeper in Evidence Hub
Evidence Hub adds a study data sheet (design, sample size, evidence level, key numbers), an AI summary and a chat grounded in the paper's text.