SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF INJECTABLE GELATINE-BASED HYDROGELS FOR LOCALIZED AND SUSTAINED RELEASE OF ANTICANCER DRUGS

Abstract

Chemotherapy, one of the most extensively used cancer therapies, usually damages healthy cells and tissues, resulting in several unwanted side effects, such as loss of organ function or decreased organ efficiency. One of the most common used drugs is Doxorubicin (DOX). It is used to treat a variety of cancers, including breast cancer, bladder cancer, Kaposi's sarcoma, lymphoma, and leukemia. Consequently, an injectable hydrogel was designed for non invasive drug delivery, simple drug integration, and locally controlled release at the target areas. Thiol-ene "click" reaction was used to produce hydrogels from thiol-functionalized gelatin (GSH) and cross-linker CD-vinyl sulfone (CD-VS). The physicochemical features of hydrogels containing varying amounts of cross-linker feed were examined, including gelation time, swelling ratio, porosity, and degradation rates. To demonstrate the high drug loading capacity and prolonged drug release of hydrogels, we developed a gelatin-based hydrogel as a drug delivery vehicle for DOX. Due to the interaction between DOX-CD, the drug release was observed to depend on CD-VS concentration. In conclusion, we anticipate that this gelatin-based hydrogel will be a potential option for the targeted and prolonged administration of hydrophobic medicines to treat cancer.