Modified chitosan-hyaluronic acid based hydrogel for the pH-responsive Co-delivery of cisplatin and doxorubicin

Combination chemotherapy has attracted more attention in the field of anticancer treatment due to the synergetic effects achieved in the targeted delivery of anticancer drugs. In the present work a hydrogel-based drug delivery system (CS-NSA/A-HA) was successfully developed from chitosan modified by nitrosalicylaldehyde and aldehyde hyaluronic acid. Anticancer drugs, Cisplatin (CDDP) and Doxorubicin (DOX) were incorporated into this hydrogel separately and a dual drug loaded system was synthesized and the potential of the single and dual drug loaded materials for lung cancer therapy was compared. The obtained hydrogel was characterized by various spectroscopic techniques. Morphological studies conducted by FE-SEM analysis. The loading and encapsulation efficiencies and percentage of drug release were determined by UV-Vis spectroscopy at different pHs. Cytotoxicity studies performed in A549 lung cancer cells confirmed the enhanced activity of the material as a dual drug carrier compared with the single loaded system. All the findings strongly suggest the applicability of the material for lung cancer therapy.