Synthesis and optimization of poly (N,N-diethylacrylamide) hydrogel and evaluation of its anticancer drug doxorubicin’s release behavior

Abstract

A macroporous temperature-responsive poly(N,N-diethylacrylamide) (PDEA) hydrogel was synthesized and optimized through free radical polymerization. The optimized hydrogel was achieved by evaluating the swelling characteristics, physical stability and mechanical strength through altering the components namely concentration of N,N-diethylacrylamide (monomer), ammonium peroxodisulfate (initiator), N,N?-methylbisacrylamide (cross-linker) and N,N,N?,N?-tetramethylethylenediamine (accelerator). The equilibrium swelling behavior was performed gravimetrically, and the PDEA hydrogel synthesized at 36 °C exhibited a maximum swelling of 18.332 g.g ?1 . Also, the LCST of the prepared PDEA hydrogel was found to be around 29 °C. However, the results of time-controlled swelling and deswelling kinetics indicated that hydrogels are temperature sensitive. Further, characterization of the hydrogel was performed using scanning electron microscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, thermal gravimetric analysis, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The hydrogel was assessed for its cytotoxicity in MDA-MB-231 cell line by MTT assay. The release behavior of anticancer drug doxorubicin (DOX), a hydroxyl derivative of anthracycline, was studied at above and below the LCST temperature. It was found that the DOX release from the DOX-loaded hydrogels was significantly improved when the surrounding temperature of the release media was increased near to physiological temperature. The cumulative release profile of hydrogel at different temperatures was fitted to different kinetic model equations and non-Fickian diffusion release mechanism was revealed. These results suggest that PDEA has a potential application as an intelligent drug carrier. © 2018, Iran Polymer and Petrochemical Institute.