Controlled Drug Release from Hydrogel Formulations for The Localised Delivery of Anticancer Agents to Solid Tumors

Abstract

The hydrogel of the β-sheet self-assembled peptides is one of the powerful vehicles for the drug delivery and other biomedical applications. This class of hydrogel contains both hydrophilic and hydrophobic moieties. Therefore, it plays an integral part in the delivering of the hydrophobic drugs, which considers as a main challenge to overcome when dealing with hydrogels, this is because hydrogels are hydrophilic in nature. Herein, Doxorubicin has been used as a model anticancer agent because it is the most widely known as an anthracycline antibiotic with high anticancer activity. The major challenge with this chemotherapeutic agent its poor aqueous solubility, thus attempts have been made to transform it into hydrogel via hydrophobic interactions. The release of doxorubicin from the hydrogels at the tumour cells, is the vital aim here. Controlling the Dox release has been achievable through monitoring several parameters, such as the gel concentrations, PH, time, and the number of lysine residues. The mechanical properties, secondary structure and the morphology of the peptide hydrogels and Dox hydrogels were also assessed, via using the Rheometer, FTIR and SEM.