HEMA-based hydrogels are structures that usually belong to the group of swelling, drug release, and controlled drug delivery systems. It is simple and easy to prepare HEMA based hydrogels. The preparation process is presented in the Fig. 1. In this work, free-radical polymerization was used. The reaction between APS and TEMED was the first step of polymerization: Homolytic cleavage of APS fragments accelerated by TEMED created free radicals. We successfully synthesized HEMA based hydrogel. The prepared HEMA hydrogel formed a guest-host complex with drug molecules that have low water solubility (Fig. 1). The binding between the drug and HEMA was provided by non-covalent interactions such as π-π, CH-π, electrostatic interaction, H-binding, and hydrophobic interaction [29, 30]. So, we obtained an usefull complex to reduce side effects of drug and also the drug was prevented to degrade. These opportunities provided by the HEMA was most likely due to the incorporation into the non-polar cavities of the HEMA of the non-polar portions of these molecules [31].
The drug molecules have been successfully complexed with HEMA hydrogels to increase its preservation. Placement of these drug molecules into HEMA hydrogel was characterized by FT-IR. FT-IR spectra were recorded to obtain chemical information from samples with various cross-link densities as shown in Fig. 2. At the same time, both pure HEMA structures and interactions between HEMA and drug molecules were shown. The broad peak observed at around 3300 cm− 1 can be due to O-H stretching vibration in the spectrum of HEMA and drug molecule loaded HEMA (Fig. 2). We observed the peak that located at 1642 cm− 1 is the most significant difference between the loaded hydrogel samples (Fig. 2). The peak at 1642 cm− 1 occurred from the C = O bond. Due to C-O-C stretching, the peaks at 1154 and 1070 cm− 1 also confirmed the existence of the ester group of HEMA. At the same time, the peak observed at 1154 cm− 1 is explained by the C-N stretching vibrations of the HEMA hydrogel containing the drug molecules of niclosamide and furosemide [32].
The complexation of furosemide, niclosamide and nifedipine with HEMA hydrogel was visualized with SEM after FT-IR characterization. The morphological properties of pure hydrogel and HEMA hydrogels containing drug molecule were evaluated using SEM, as shown in Fig. 3. Hydrogels were clearly observed to have porous internal structures and interconnected pores. The structure of pure hydrogels has been monitored to contain smoother structures compared to drug-loaded hydrogel. The morphologies of hydrogels were observed at in cell-containing mediums and compared the images. Crystal structures were observed on the surface of the hydrogel, as drug releases had occurred from drug-loaded hydrogel in the cells medium. Since these crystal-like structures were not observed in pure hydrogel, these structures can be considered as the drug molecules. This image indicated that the hydrogel structure protects and releases the drug molecules in the presence of cells. As shown in the images, all hydrogel structures after the applied process clearly exhibited the molecules they contained.
The equilibrium swelling behaviors of the HEMA hydrogels in different buffer solutions (pH 2, pH 4, pH 7 and pH 9) and water are shown in Fig. 4. Acoording to swelling of HEMA, buffer solution was absorbed more than water. As the pH was increased, the swelling ability of the hydrogel increased. When the pH excedds 7, the swelling of HEMA structure was influenced negatively. Rising pH of solutions showed that, the enlarging of hydrogel speed and size also increased. Becaus, increasing pH cause ionization of the carboxyl groups of MBA. Also, this causes the separation of hydrogen bonds between the carboxylic acid groups of the MBA and the oxygens of the ether groups of the HEMA. Combined with the electrostatic repulsion force, the dissociation of hydrogen bonds makes the hydrogel network swell rapidly. Therefore, the hydrogels are immersed in more water and a higher swelling ratio is obtained [33].
After characterization of pure hydrogel and drug-loaded hydrogel structures, cytotoxicity tests, and releases of drug were performed. In vitro release profiles are an indication of the effectiveness of the drug release system. Therefore, the in vitro release of the drugs, furosemide, niclosamide, and nifedipine, from the hydrogel of HEMA was examined. The cumulative release profiles of these drug molecules from hydrogel matrices in the phosphate buffer were presented in Fig. 5a. According to the release results of drug-loaded hydrogels, niclosamide, nifedipine and furosemide drug releases were found to be 86, 75, and 80%, respectively (Fig. 5b). Because HEMA is a hydrophilic swellable polymer, when the hydrogels are introduced into aqueous media, the polymeric matrix begins to swell [34]. HEMA hydrogel with swelling ability shows low cytotoxicity without hemolysis. These hydrogels in aqueous solution both provide to reduce side effects of drug and prevent drug degradation [35].
Structural features and monomers types of hydrogels are very significant to decide the application field. For instance, evaluation of the structural properties of hydrogel structures is very important in various biological fields such as drug delivery, biomedical applications, and tissue engineering. As seen in the Table 1, hydrogels containing HEMA structure were used in many areas, especially drug release. In addition, drug release, solubility and vasoactivity studies were carried out from some hydrogel structures of nifedipine, niclosamide and furosemide drug molecules. In this study, HEMA based hydrogel structures containing drug molecules have been designed of cancer threapy. It has been observed that this hydrogel structure swells when contacted with an aqueous solution and / or pH solution. At the same time, this hydrogel structure releases the drug molecules it contains by providing the ability to swell in an aqueous environment. In this section, we shall discuss the swelling of hydrogels for cancer treatment and the release of each drug in the HEMA hydrogel.
Table1 The hydrogel structure can be studied on different application as detailed below:
The effects of these released drug molecules and hydrogel structure against to healthy and cancer cell lines were investigated. Cell viability measurements were made over time to evaluate the drug release system of the drug-containing hydrogels against MCF-7, MIA PaCa-2 and HEK-293 cells. In vitro drug-release studies were tested with drug-loaded hydrogels to obtain results consistent with cumulative release results. In vitro release studies were done on MCF-7, HEK 293, and MIA PaCa-2 cell lines (Fig. 6b, 6a, 6c). The drugs niclosamide, nifedipine, and furosemide caused 62%, 32%, and 42% deaths in MCF-7 cells, respectively. Also, niclosamide, nifedipine, and furosemide caused 64%, 33%, 50% deaths in MIA PaCa-2, respectively. But, the death rate (around 20%) was less observed in the HEK 293 healthy cell line. Niclosamide has been shown to have more cytotoxic effects on cancer cells than those of furosemide and nifedipine showed.
The cytotoxicity of niclosamide, nifedipine and furosemide against two different cancer cell lines MCF-7, MIA PaCa-2, and an epithelial cell line HEK 293 were evaluated. Obtained cytotoxicity test bar graph were shown in Fig. 6 and estimated IC50 (half maximal inhibitory concentrations) were summarized in Table 2.
Table 2 The IC50 of tested drug molecules in different cell lines (MCF-7, MIA PaCa-2 and HEK 293) after 72-h incubation.
The data is described as a mean ± SD of three free experimental definitions applied in triplicate.
Compound
|
Cytotoxicity (IC50, µM)
|
MCF-7
|
MIA PaCa-2
|
HEK 293
|
Furosemide
|
132.3 ± 25.3
|
114.3 ± 33.2
|
N.D.
|
Nifedipine
|
184.5 ± 27.8
|
151.4 ± 27.4
|
N.D.
|
Niclosamide
|
93.9 ± 19.2
|
87.8 ± 11,7
|
N.D.
|
N.D. not detected |
The Alamar blue experiment was performed using equivalent doses of hydrogels containing the drug molecules. According to in vitro drug release research, the drug release occurred within the first 72 hours. The death of MCF-7, MIA PaCa-2 and HEK 293 cells was at the maximum after 40–44 hours (Fig. 7). However, the lethal effects of drug molecules loaded hydrogels on HEK-293 were much lower than MCF-7 and MIA PaCa-2. Application of hydrogel structures containing the niclosamide to cells for 40 hours showed inhibition rates of 62% at the MCF-7, 64% at the MIA PaCa-2 and 18% at the HEK-293 cell line. As a result of the release of the furosemide from hydrogel to cells, 42%, 50% and 20% deaths were observed in MCF-7, MIA PaCa-2 and HEK 293 cell lines respectively. These results showed similarity with the results from the 72-hour inhibition test. Furthermore, hydrogels containing complex structures of nifedipine and furosemide were applied in equivalent doses. No significant differences were observed in their effect on cell viability. The results of release and incubation of niclosamide showed that it has a higher cell inhibition effect than other drug molecules.
The cytotoxicity tests indicated that all drug molecules had middle and good cytotoxic activity on the cancer cell lines [35]. The hydrogels containing drug molecules were found to cause more death in cell lines compared to control and pure hydrogels. Figure 8 showed that the death rate of cancer cell was higher than healthy cell. As a result, niclosamide is the most cytotoxic drug and furosemide also has moderate cytotoxic. Also, this study suggests that HEMA hydrogels can be used to preserving drug, and developing as support material for drug release.