Thermal-responsive β-cyclodextrin-based magnetic hydrogel as a de novo nanomedicine for chemo/hyperthermia treatment of cancerous cells
Morteza Eskandani, Rana Jahanban‐Esfahlan, Mohammad Mehdi Sadughi, Mehdi Jaymand
Abstract
A novel thermal-responsive β-cyclodextrin-based magnetic hydrogel [β-cyclodextrin- graft -poly( N -isopropylacrylamide)/Fe 3 O 4 (β-CD- g -PNIPAAm/Fe 3 O 4 )] was fabricated as a novel nanomedicine for chemo/hyperthermia treatment of cancer cells. Firstly, β-CD was modified by maleic anhydride (MA) followed by copolymerization with NIPAAm monomer and thiol-end capped Fe 3 O 4 nanoparticles (NPs) in the presence of a crosslinker through acrylamide–thiol polymerization system to afford a magnetic hydrogel. The saturation magnetization ( δ s ) value for developed hydrogel was determined to be 8.2 emu g −1 . The hydrogel was physically loaded with an anticancer agent, doxorubicin hydrochloride (Dox). The encapsulation efficiency (EE) of drug into the hydrogel was obtained as 73 %. The system represented acceptable thermal-triggered drug release behavior that best fitted with Higuchi model, demonstrating the release of drug is mostly controlled by diffusion mechanism. The anticancer performance of the β-CD- g -PNIPAAm/Fe 3 O 4 -Dox was evaluated using MCF7 cells by MTT-assay. In addition, flow cytometry analyses showed considerable cellular uptake of Dox in the cells treated with β-CD- g -PNIPAAm/Fe 3 O 4 -Dox (∼70 %) compared to free Dox (∼28 %). As results, in time period of 48 h by combination of chemo- and hyperthermia-therapies, the developed system displayed greater anticancer efficiency than the free Dox.