Investigation of acyclovir-loaded, acrylamide-based hydrogels for potential use as vaginal ring

Abstract

In the current research, based on the investigation of the drug-loaded hydrogels, the maximum content of acyclovir loading in polymer consequently relates to the pH at which the nanoprecipitation is performed: 24.32% at pH 7.5. The efficiency of loading that corresponds to the percentage of acyclovir encapsulated into the vehicle for a given amount of acyclovir used is 79.97%. The drug-loaded hydrogels with 6.4% w/w, had the highest hardness with 4.1 ± 0.6 N/m2 prior and 5.6 ± 0.3 N/m2 after immersion in the SVF. Based on the FESEM images, the permeability of nano-composite hydrogels is increased. In PZC characterization, pHPZC of the acrylamide-based hydrogel in water is 4.5 that for drug-loaded hydrogel is increased to 4.7. Increasing wt% of acrylamide in the hydrogel results in yield% and gel% increasing. Increasing cross-linker concentration results in yield% or gel% increasing. Above 0.25 wt% initiator, increasing the concentration of initiator results in yield% or gel% decrease. From the MTT assay method, Acrylamide-based hydrogel demonstrated a cytotoxic effect at 12.5, 25, 50, 100 and 200 mg/mL concentrations under the condition of this study. To reduce the cytotoxic effect of these polymers, the amount of acrylamide can be decreased from 1 g to 0.5 g.