Preparation of self-healable nanocomposite hydrogel based on Gum Arabic/gelatin and graphene oxide: study of drug delivery behavior

In this study, Gum Arabic Aldehyde (GAA) and polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) were used to develop pH-sensitive and self-healable hydrogels. The PVA and GAA based hydrogels have the advantages of non-toxicity, water-solubility, eco-friendly, biodegradability, and pH sensitivity. However, poor stiffness, low mechanical strength, and hydrophilicity limit their applications. Graphene oxide (GO), gelatin, and boric acid were used to improve the limitations of GAA/PVA hydrogels through cross-linking, Schiff-base reaction between aldehyde groups of GAA and amino groups of gelatin, and hydrogen bonding between PVA chains and boric acid. The prepared hydrogels demonstrated high mechanical properties, good self-healing properties, and pH sensitivity, which facilitate their application as favorable biomaterials for drug delivery. The swelling behavior, degradation, mechanical properties, and rheological behaviors were studied for hydrogels. The hydrogels demonstrated well mechanical properties and well pH sensitivity during controlled release investigation of rivastigmine (RIV) drug under intestinal (~ 83% at pH 7.4) media. Incorporating GO in the hydrogel network, enhanced the mechanical properties, self-healing properties, drug entrapment efficiency, and ensure the controlled release of the entrapped drug. The self-healing properties, swelling behavior, degradation, tensile and compressive tests, rheological behaviors, and in vitro drug release behavior were studied to monitor the effect of GO on the hydrogel properties. Our results illustrated that the self-healing nanocomposite hydrogel was expected to be a platform for drug delivery in pH 7.4.