Drug Implants of Hydrogels via Collective Behavior of Microgel Colloids for On-Demand Cancer Therapy

In
nature, the collective behaviors such as the growth of bacteria
and the cooperation of insects possess great superiority and can create
functional materials through diversified interactions for accomplishing
complex tasks that cannot be performed by a single unit. Here we develop
a new protocol for fabricating drug implants of hydrogels via the
collective behavior of jagged magnetic microgels constructed by further
coating Au nanorod@SiO2 with the thermo- and magnetic-responsive
polymer shells, poly­(N-isopropylacrylamide-co-magnetic ionic liquids). The magnetism of resultant macroscale
hydrogels was enhanced nearly 5-fold because of the self-organization
process, presenting new evidence for the essence of magnetism generation
at a molecular level. By virtue of using a near-IR laser excitation
stimulus, minimal cytotoxicity, and high biocompatibility, the implants
of hydrogels not only have the potential to be local drug implants
for sustaining drug release over 30 days but also achieve on-demand
release for the enhanced therapeutic effect. The formation of microgel
colloids provides an unprecedented strategy to rearrange molecular
magnets and a unique potential and possibility for magnetism enhancement.
This enhancement motivates an improvement of solid tumor therapy and
also supplies a force for the real implementation of the on-demand
drug treatment.