NIR-triggered Thermo-Responsive Biodegradable Hydrogel with Combination of Photothermal and Thermodynamic Therapy for Hypoxic Tumor

Publication date: Available online 10 January 2020Source: Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical SciencesAuthor(s): Xiaoqi Sun, Di Liu, Xiaoyu Xu, Yifeng Shen, Yanjuan Huang, Zishan Zeng, Meng Xia, Chunshun ZhaoAbstractHypoxia is a typical feature of solid tumors, which highly limits the application of the oxygen-dependent therapy. Also, the dense and hyperbaric tumor tissues impede the penetration of nanoparticles into the deep tumor. Thereby, we designed a novel localized injectable hydrogel combining the photothermal therapy (PTT) and the thermodynamic therapy (TDT), which is based on the generation of free radicals even in the absence of oxygen for hypoxic tumor therapy. In our study, gold nanorods (AuNRs) and 2,2′-Azobis[2-(2-imidazalin-2-yl)propane] dihydrochlaride (AIPH) were incorporated into the hydrogel networks, which were formed by the copolymerization of hydrophobic N-isopropyl acrylamide (NIPAM) and hydrophilic glycidyl methacrylate modified hyaluronic acid (HA-GMA) to fabricate an injectable and near-infrared (NIR) responsive hydrogel. The crosslinked in situ forming hydrogel could not only realize PTT upon the NIR laser irradiation, but also generate free radicals even in hypoxic condition. Meanwhile the shrink of hydrogels upon thermal could accelerate the generation of free radicals to further damage the tumors, achieving the controlled drug release on demand. The designed hydrogel with a sufficient loading capacity, excellent biocompatibility and negligible syst...
Source: Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences - Category: Drugs & Pharmacology Source Type: research