| Nanosized drug delivery approaches have been offered for targeting cancer cells because of their
improved permeability and retention effect (EPR), enhanced bioavailability of drugs and the circulation
time in the bloodstream. Besides, combination therapy has become an appealing approach for clinical
cancer treatment to reach synergistic effects through reducing toxic drug side effects due to the low
drug dose administration. The purpose of this study was to design biocompatible and novel multi-stimuli
responsive polymeric nanogels (PEGIAn-ss-PNIPAAm-ss-PDAEMAQ NGs) for intracellular co-delivery of
methotrexate (MTX) and 6-mercaptopurine (MPU) to the MCF7 cell line. The developed NGs revealed
many favorable abilities including a narrow size distribution range (60 nm), high drug loading capacities
(26% for MTX and 11% for MPU), and stimuli-responsive drug release. The improved efficiency of the
obtained NGs was verified by MTT assay, DAPI staining, cellular uptake, and apoptosis analysis. According
to the achieved results, it was concluded that the developed smart NGs have many hopeful abilities for
co-delivery of MTX and MPU and can be applied in effective cancer therapy. |