مشخصات پژوهش

Cancer is considered as one of the most important reason of death in the world in these years. The different ranges of chemotherapy drugs are used as a significant way to treat various cancers. In spite of significant applications, anticancer drugs suffer from some limited effects on target cells due to lack of selectivity, low solubility, uniform tissue distribution, short half-life in the bloodstream and dose-related toxicity. Methotrexate (MTX), a chemotherapy drug, is a folic acid analog and uses for the treatment of many different kinds of cancers. MTX can mainly blocks the dihydrofolatereductase (DHFR) enzyme and subsequently prevents the production of thymidine [1]. For controlled release of this drug, the use of appropriate drug systems and carriers is very important. In this study, the application of graphene oxide nanocomposite hydrogels as carriers of this drug is described. When GO and hydrophilic polymers are composited, the GO components can increase the mechanical properties and stabilities of hydrogels compared with those of GO-free hydrogels. The incorporation of GO into hydrogels can also enhance the molecular adsorption and electrical conductivity of hydrogels. Numerous composite hydrogels containing various nanomaterials (e.g., metal nanoparticles and organic nanoparticles) have been fabricated to obtain hydrogens with improved properties. Compared with such conventional nanomaterials, GO presents an extremely high surface-to-volume ratio with a large lateral dimension, flexibility, electrical conductivity, biological activity, and multiple strong molecular interactions with various molecules [2].