title: Amino Acid Based Hydrogels with Dual Responsiveness for Oral Drug Delivery.
abstract: This study reports a series of novel amino acid based dual-responsive hydrogels. Prepared by a facile one-pot 1-ethyl-3-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)carbodiimide (EDC) coupling reaction, the solid content, structure, and mechanical behavior of hydrogels could be easily adjusted by changing the concentrations of the polymers and the crosslinkers. With pH-responsive anionic pseudo-peptides as backbones and disulfide-containing l-cystine dimethyl ester as crosslinkers, these hydrogels are able to collapse and form relatively compact structure at an acidic pH, while swelled and partly dissociated at a neutral pH. Further addition of dithiothreitol (DTT) facilitated complete degradation of hydrogels. The high loading efficiency, rapid but complete triggered-release, and good biocompatibility make these hydrogels promising candidates for oral delivery.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
authors.forename: Shiqi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
authors.forename: Xiaoxue
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Department of Materials, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK.
authors.forename: Ignacio J
authors.initials: IJ
authors.lastname: Villar-Garcia
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemical Engineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, London, SW7 2AZ, UK. rongjun.chen@imperial.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Rongjun
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000737:chemistry*; D016923:Cell Death; D016503:Drug Delivery Systems / Q000379:methods*; D065546:Drug Liberation; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D020100:Hydrogels / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry*; D006863:Hydrogen-Ion Concentration; D008855:Microscopy, Electron, Scanning; D008970:Molecular Weight; D056951:Photoelectron Spectroscopy; D012212:Rheology; D017550:Spectroscopy, Fourier Transform Infrared
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D020100:Hydrogels
keywords: hydrogel; oral delivery; pH-responsive; redox-responsive