Injectable Chondroitin Sulfate-Based Hydrogel Drug Delivery Systems

Saucier, Corinne; Racca, Nicole; Cavalcanti Bezerra M Carvalho, Camila; McCuaig, Brianna

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Injectable Chondroitin Sulfate-Based Hydrogel Drug Delivery Systems

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Neuroblastoma is the most common extracranial solid tumor diagnosed in children ages 10 years and younger. The current gold standard treatment for neuroblastoma is systemic chemotherapy, which results in the death of both healthy and malignant cells and has adverse effects that negatively impact development in children. Localized delivery of chemotherapeutics with the ability for sustained release is therefore desirable to reduce off-target complications. One method that has been recently explored to achieve this localized delivery and sustained release is hydrogel-based drug delivery systems. This project aims to design, fabricate, and validate a hydrogel-based drug delivery system that has an acceptable injection force profile for the localized intra-tumoral delivery of chemotherapeutics. The final hydrogel formulation will be evaluated for efficacy via a dimethyl-methylene blue assay, injection force testing, and daunorubicin loading and release assays. After evaluating three design approaches the team concluded on using 10% 4 h methacrylated chondroitin sulfate hydrogels that are UV-A light cured, to produce a hydrogel drug delivery system that is compatible with the loading of the chemotherapeutic agent daunorubicin. Upon further testing it was found that the hydrogel system was able to provide reproducible drug loading, remain insoluble and provide a sustained drug release profile over 30 days. When the system was further tested with injection force testing using a 2 kN Instron, it was found that the hydrogel had a non-reproducible injection for and an average force of 38 N, showcasing that this system did not meet the target for reproducibility and target injection force. Although these targets were not met, further conclusions were made to generate a fabrication technique that can meet these requirements.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

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