Design and therapeutic application of sodium alginate-based hydrogel with biodegradability and catalytic activity

How to efficiently treat cancer in a minimally invasive manner has become one of the major focuses of recent developments in biomedicine. In this research, biodegradable sodium alginate (SA) hydrogel encapsulated with NaHCO 3 and glucose oxidase (GO X ) was synthesized using Fe 3+ as the crosslinker for the tumor chemodynamic therapy (CDT) and starvation therapy (ST). Material safety assessments revealed that this hydrogel possesses good in vitro and in vivo security. In tumor microenvrionment (TME), the Fe 3+ further reacted with the intracellular glutathione and was transformed into Fe 2+ , which triggered the Fenton reaction with the H 2 O 2 within TME and produced abundant highly toxic ·OH (hydroxyl radicals) for efficient tumor CDT. Furthermore, the GO X catalyzed the enzymolysis of glucose to consume the nutrient of the tumor and enhance the H 2 O 2 level in TME. Besides, the CO 2 bubbles that were generated from the decomposing of NaHCO 3 promoted the contact between glucose and GO X . Findings in this research would have important implications for the present status of tumor therapy.