Thermoresponsive MXene-based hydrogel for controlled anticancer drug release

The response of smart hydrogels to near-infrared (NIR) light has great potential for local drug delivery in tumor treatment. However, it is limited in biomedical applications due to low photothermal conversion rate, poor photothermal stability, and unreasonable temperature range. To solve this problem, we simply prepared a MXene/Gellan gum hydrogel (MXene@GG) by physically mixing MXene nanosheets, FeCl2 solution, and GG, which has high photothermal conversion efficiency and good photothermal stability. Importantly, MXene@GG have better photothermal properties than MXene solutions, can more effectively control drug release, and can easily control drug on/off release and kinetics. In addition, further cell experiments showed that the MXene@GG had good biocompatibility and that the drugs of doxorubicin (DOX) retained anticancer activity after rapid release from the MXene@GG hydrogel network under NIR irradiation. Thus, this newly prepared NIR responsive MXene@GG hydrogel provides a new approach for the development of intelligent drug delivery systems for local cancer treatment.