Deep eutectic solvent based self-healable, stretchable and injectable eutectogels: A versatile platform for breast cancer treatment

Recent focus is on developing cancer treatments that overcome challenges of high-dose chemotherapy, providing improved safety, effectiveness, and site-specific targeting through responsive mechanisms. In our quest for an advanced drug delivery vehicle, herein we have developed a self-healable and injectable polymeric eutectogels that responds to intracellular biological stimuli i.e., pH and temperature. The eutectogels made through interacting imidazolium based deep eutectic solvents with polyvinyl alcohol serve as a local drug delivery system for cancer therapeutics, releasing the anti-cancer drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) to the targeted site through intracellular pH, i.e. pH 5.0. Rheology experiments showed strong mechanical strength (>7.3 % strain) for the studied eutectogels that have hierarchical and porous 3D network morphology formed by thick fibers. It exhibits crucial qualities- swelling, injectability, and self-healing- essential for an effective drug delivery vehicle. Additionally, eutectogels demonstrates outstanding biocompatibility, with hemolysis below 2 %, ensuring blood compatibility and sustained viability in HaCaT cells. Leveraging these properties, 5-FU-loaded eutectogels were studied for in vitro cytotoxicity (MCF-7 and HeLa) and drug release that revealed that the eutectogels can be used for targeted delivery under physiological conditions and can more efficiently kill cancerous cells.