Linking interfacial behavior to thermo-diffusive cisplatin release in biopolymeric nanogels

Area of Science:

• Biomaterials Science
• Drug Delivery
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Biopolymeric nanogels offer potential for sustained anticancer drug delivery.
• Challenges exist in linking nanogel structure, transport, and temperature-dependent release.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and characterize mucilage-alginate-coated chitosan (MACC) nanogels for cisplatin delivery.
• To establish physically interpretable links between MACC nanogel formulation, thermo-diffusive transport, and drug release kinetics.
• To investigate the influence of basil seed mucilage as a hydrophilic shell modifier.

Main Methods:

• Development of MACC nanogels with varying mucilage content.
• Characterization of nanogel morphology, particle size, and encapsulation efficiency.
• In vitro cytotoxicity assays using normal fibroblast and MCF-7 breast cancer cells.
• Drug release studies in PBS (pH 7.4) under varying temperatures (35-39 °C).
• Empirical kinetic analysis, mechanistic thermo-diffusive modeling, and air-water interfacial tensiometry.

Main Results:

• Optimized MACC₂ nanogels exhibited stable core-shell structure (75 ± 12 nm) and 46.85% encapsulation efficiency.
• MACC nanogels showed good biocompatibility and dose-dependent inhibition of MCF-7 cells.
• Drug release followed a biphasic profile, dominated by diffusion, and accelerated with increasing temperature.
• Effective diffusion coefficients increased from 2.0 × 10⁻²¹ to 3.6 × 10⁻²¹ m² s⁻¹ between 35-39 °C.
• Arrhenius analysis confirmed thermally activated transport; kinetic modeling indicated diffusion control with polymer relaxation.

Conclusions:

• The integrated framework successfully linked MACC nanogel formulation to cisplatin transport and temperature-dependent release.
• Basil seed mucilage incorporation effectively tuned nanogel properties and release profiles.
• The developed MACC nanogels show promise for controlled and temperature-sensitive anticancer drug delivery.