A novel thermo-sensitive nanogel composing of poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) grafted onto alginate-modified graphene oxide for hydrophilic anticancer drug delivery

Nanogels have been demonstrated to be desirable for hydrophilic anticancer drug delivery. This study presents a novel nanogel consisting of sodium alginate-modified graphene oxide (SA-GO) and N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAM) for sustained delivery of doxorubicin (DOX) drug. The PNIPAM/SA-GO nanogel was studied by various techniques including scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, dynamic light scattering, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, and thermo-gravimetric analysis. Subsequently, the thermo-responsive behavior of the PNIPAM/SA-GO nanogel was investigated by UV–Vis spectroscopy. DOX was successfully loaded into the PNIPAM/SA-GO nanogel in order to study entrapment efficiency and drug release behavior. Moreover, biocompatibility of the DOX-loaded PNIPAM/SA-GO nanogel was examined against Hella cells and was compared with free PNIPAM/SA-GO nanogel and DOX. This work offers that the nanogels could be developed further as an effective bioactive molecule delivery system.