Glucose Responsive Hydrogels: Synthesis and Investigation of the Biomedical Applications

The growing rate of diabetes mellitus (DM) has called for urgent concern among researchers and expert in the field of drug delivery. Hence, the present work synthesized pH and glucose-sensitive hydrogels with promising antibacterial applications. The hydrogel (CS─PVA) was synthesized via boric acid crosslinking and freeze-thawing cycle techniques. The surface chemistry of CS─PVA hydrogel was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The hydrogel displayed high glucose-sensitivity under physiological conditions, and its sensitivity was noticed to increase in the presence of varied glucose concentrations. Additionally, the swelling and drug loading behavior of the hydrogel was influenced by the pH of the medium. Under optimized conditions, the cumulative drug releases ranged between 33─86% for bovine serum albumin and 39─92% for insulin at 37°C in PBS solutions and in the presence of glucose. The synthesized hydrogel exhibited excellent antibacterial activity and was found to reduce the growth of E.coli (gram negative) bacterial by 86.5%. Keywords: Chitosan; glucose sensitivity; drug delivery; antibacterial; hydrogels; swelling; optimization.