Novel pH/reduction responsive graphene oxide nanoparticles based hydrogel for targeted combination chemotherapy

Chemotherapy using single drug is not successful now a days due to the emergence of multidrug-resistant cancer cells. In the present work, Methotrexate (MTX) and Mitomycin C (MMC) loaded hydrogel sensitive to both reduction and pH are prepared and well characterized using various instrumentation techniques like FTIR, XRD, SEM and TEM. The drug loading and encapsulation efficiencies (DEE and DLE) of MTX are found to be 90.5 and 54.3% respectively and for MMC the value is 95.1 and 62.7% respectively. Invitro cytotoxicity and Apoptosis studies confirm the increased anticancer activity and selectivity of the novel carrier.