A novel dual thermo‑ and pH‑responsive supermagnetic iron oxide nanocomposite hydrogel as controlled release of anticancer drug

The new generation of therapeutic systems for cancers focusses on the concept of targeting and slowing the release of drugs to long-term the therapeutic efficiency and reduces the side effects which mainly originate from the high dosage of the drug in the blood. Today, there are many reports on the use of magnetic high surface area nanoparticles with the ability to respond to pH changes of environment. The use of these nanoparticles enables the targeted transfer of the drug to the target tissue. In this paper, a novel iron oxide nanocomposite hydrogel was prepared by simultaneous formation of superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and cross-linking of poly(acrylamid) grafted onto salep polysaccharide. The prepared optimized hydrogel was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscop, scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, and transmission electron microscopy. Moreover, swelling capacity of the obtained hydrogel was measured at diferent temperatures, diferent pHs, absorption under load, and magnetic feld to assess the sensitivity of ION–PAAm-g-Salep hydrogel. This hydrogel was also examined as a controlled drug delivery system. Doxorubicin (as model drugs) release was investigated at diferent pHs, diferent temperatures, and magnetic feld. The release curves were nicely ftted by the Korsmeyer–Peppas equation, and the release is controlled by polymer relaxation process.