The construction of gold hybrid supramolecular hydrogels for doxorubicin delivery

Currently, drug delivery systems with low toxicity and high efficacy are urgently needed to suppress cancer cells. Herein, a non-toxic and biocompatible drug carrier (mPEG-luteolin-AuNPs) was prepared, which was characteristic by SEM, FT-IR, XRD, average particle size, zeta potential and UV-Vis spectra, respectively. Considering that the morphology of supramolecular hydrogel was porous which was good for storage of drugs, a stable supramolecular hydrogel self-assembly formed based on mPEG-luteolin-AuNPs and α-cyclodextrin (α-CD) was reported. Then, supramolecular hydrogel loaded doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) and sustained DOX release. Meanwhile, in vitro experiments clearly demonstrated that DOX of hydrogel (mPEG-luteolin-AuNPs/DOX) was biologically active, similar to free DOX, but with better cytotoxicity to human glioblastoma cells (U-87 MG) because of its controllable release. Our findings indicated that mPEG-luteolin-AuNPs/DOX might be promising delivery systems for anticancer chemotherapy.