Evaluation of Dual Drug Delivery Efficiency of Nanocomposite Hydrogel Containing Pectin for Combating Cancer

ABSTRACT Traditional chemotherapeutic approaches for cancer treatment often face challenges, such as limited bioavailability and efficacy of anticancer drugs due to a lack of specificity and quick metabolism. In this study, a nanocomposite hydrogel, namely pectin‐ graft ‐poly(4‐acryloylmorpholine‐ co ‐2‐acrylamido‐2‐methyl‐1‐propanesulphonic acid) embedded with silver nanoparticles (Pec‐ g ‐poly(AcM‐ co ‐AMPS)‐SNPs) was developed as a dual drug delivery system for cancer treatment. The nanocomposite and the neat gel without silver nanoparticles (SNPs) were characterized using various techniques and evaluated for their efficiencies for the co‐delivery of 5‐fluorouracil (5‐FU) and doxorubicin (DOX) as model anticancer drugs. The nanocomposite and the neat gel exhibited pH‐responsive swelling behavior, and comparatively higher swelling was observed for the nanocomposite, with maximum swelling at pH 7.4. The swelling process obeyed the pseudo‐second‐order kinetic model. A similar observation was made regarding the release of the drugs, with significantly higher release at pH 7.4. About 83.9% of 5‐FU and 73.3% of DOX were released from the nanocomposite at pH 7.4 during 8 h. The drug release profile adhered to the first‐order kinetic and the Higuchi‐square root models. The transport of the incorporated drugs out of the nanocomposite matrix into the dissolution medium was observed to be a Fickian diffusion process. The developed nanocomposite has been proven to be cytocompatible, as demonstrated by the cytotoxicity study carried out using MCF‐10A cells, suggesting its suitability for oral co‐delivery of 5‐FU and DOX for combating cancer.