Abstract
Polypeptide thermosensitive hydrogel is an excellent candidate as smart device to deliver drugs and cells due to its remarkable biocompatibility, low gelation concentration, and respond to temperature stimuli. It can be easily injected as a polymer solution into the patient’s body where it undergoes gelation due to an elevation in temperature. Poly (ethylene glycol) monomethyl ether-poly (ethyl-l-glutamate) (mPEG-PELG) contains hydrophobic side chains –C2H5. This polymer is useful in encapsulating and stabilizing hydrophobic drugs. In this study, we plan to focus on the hydrophobic drug curcumin, which requires a proper carrier for delivery into the body due its insolubility in water. Our principal is to use mPEG-PELG to stabilize curcumin, inject the curcumin-loaded hydrogel into the tumor site, and allow the enzymatically-sensitive hydrogel to be degraded by body fluids and release the drug. The polymers of interest have been successfully synthesized and characterized by 1H-NMR, FT-IR, DLS, TEM, SEM and CMC. Curcumin loading content and drug release were quantitatively characterized using HPLC. The results show the promising potential of this polymeric hydrogel in drug delivery.