Abstract

In the present work, polymer hydrogels have been used as the drug carrier for delivery systems of anticancer drugs. This investigation involves the formation of alginate hydrogels by a combination of three different monomers. The sodium alginate (SA) hydrogels were developed by free-radical polymerization of selective water-soluble monomers such as acrylamide (Am), methacrylamide (MAm), N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm), and water-soluble polysaccharide (SA). The structural and morphological characterizations of the developed hydrogels were obtained from FTIR spectroscopy, differential scanning calorimetry, and scanning electron microscopy studies. Then, the hydrogels developed were encapsulated with a model cancer drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) and hydrogels containing 5-FU drug were evaluated for in vitro release studies. The released profiles of the drug showed that between 95% and 34% the loaded drug was released in the first half-an-hour at a buffer solution of 7.4 and the rest of the drug was released slowly. The results suggest that poly(N-isopropylacrylamide-sodium alginate) P(NIPAAm-SA) hydrogels show better properties than such as P(Am-SA) and P(MAm-SA). The drug release kinetic parameters suggested that the Am and MAm hydrogel networks are anomalous in nature, and the diffusion type of NIPAAM systems shows a slightly Fickian phenomenon. P(Am-SA), P(MAm-SA), and P(NIPAAm-SA) hydrogel formulations showed up to 97.13%, 95.53%, and 98. 36% cumulative release in 24 h, respectively. (C) 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.