Radiation development of pH-responsive (xanthan-acrylic acid)/MgO nanocomposite hydrogels for controlled delivery of methotrexate anticancer drug

Abstract

Nanocomposite hydrogels composed of magnesium oxide (MgO) and natural polymer-based copolymer of Xanthan gum (Xan) and acrylic acid (AAc) were prepared using radiation-induced copolymerization and crosslinking technique to be used as a drug delivery system. MgO nanoparticles were synthesized using sol- gel method. FTIR, XRD, UV-vis and TEM analysis revealed the successful preparation of MgO nanoparticles. The size of MgO nanoparticles was found to be 6.6 nm. FTIR data confirmed the incorporation of MgO within the (Xan-AAc) copolymer hydrogel. The presence of MgO nanoparticles slightly decreases the gelation degree and on contrary the swelling degree and network porosity was enhanced. (Xan-AAc)/MgO nanocomposites show typical pH-dependent swelling behavior Moreover, the swelling kinetics showed that all the samples under investigation possess Fickian at pH1 and non-Fickian at pH7. Methotrexate (MTX) as model for anticancer drugs was used to evaluate the potential efficiency of the obtained (Xan-AAc)/MgO nanocomposites as drug carrier. Incorporation of MgO into (Xan-AAc) hydrogel improves the drug loading efficiency and enhances the (MTX) release to reach maximum in the simulated intestine medium (pH7). The drug release profile came in a good agreement with swelling results which recommend the (Xan-AAc)/MgO nanocomposite hydrogels as potential targeted drug delivery system.