Construction of a non-toxic interpenetrating network hydrogel drug carrier supported by carbon microspheres and nanocellulose

Abstract

To develop a stable hydrogel drug carrier with excellent biocompatibility, biodegradability and low toxicity, a green biomass-based hydrogel was prepared as a methylene blue (MB) drug carrier model using cellulose and sodium alginate (SA) polysaccharide. The addition of nanocellulose (CNF) and hydrothermally prepared carbon microspheres to the hydrogel network formed by SA undergoing chelation with Ca²⁺ enhanced the multifaceted properties of the drug carrier. Additionally, the prepared SA-CNFgel_CS0.1 could withstand a pressure of 8.64 N and showed good compressive and elastic properties. Meanwhile, its encapsulation rate and drug loading capacity could reach 95.5 % and 19.36 mg/g, respectively. The drug release rate reached 43.4 % at 100 h in PBS solution simulating the pH value of the gastric environment, indicating good pH-responsiveness and long-lasting release ability during the drug-carrying release process. The release mechanism of the drug carrier to MB was investigated by different release kinetic models, which was in accordance with the first-order kinetic model. SA-CNFgel_CS0.1 at high concentration also did not affect the number of pancreatic cell survival and showed a high degree of biocompatibility. In addition to that, SA-CNFgel_CS0.1 can reach 100 % degradation rate in 18 days, which has no burden on the environment during use. The present study offers a novel approach to the synthesis of a biomass drug-carrying model with enhanced performance. Furthermore, this drug carrier provides a promising foundation for the development of oral MB as a potential treatment for gastrointestinal diseases and other chronic condition.