Injectable poly(ethylene glycol) hydrogels for sustained doxorubicin release

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Water‐soluble poly(ethylene glycol) derivatives with multiple “clickable” mercapto groups or double bonds were facilely synthesized in a large scale by direct polycondensation of oligo(ethylene glycol) diol with mercaptosuccinic acid or maleic acid catalyzed by scandium trifluoromethanesulfonate under mild conditions. Injectable hydrogels containing doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX · HCl) could be rapidly formed using these poly(ethylene glycol) derivatives as precursors via in situ thiol‐ene “click” reaction under physiological conditions without light, initiator, or metal catalyst. DOX · HCl could be sustained released from the hydrogels as a result of the hindrance of the three dimensional hydrogel network on the drug molecules, which makes this kind of DOX‐loaded hydrogels a promising candidate for localized tumor chemotherapy.