Design of Salecan-containing semi-IPN hydrogel for amoxicillin delivery

•Salecan is a new water-soluble microbial polysaccharide.•Salecan-containing semi-IPN hydrogels were synthesized.•Effect of Salecan content on the properties of the hydrogels were studied.•The Salecan-based hydrogel was an effective vehicle for drug encapsulation/release.

Salecan is a new linear extracellular β-glucan. The unique structure and beneficial properties of Salecan makes it an appealing material in biomedical applications. In this work, novel drug devices based on Salecan in a hydrogel matrix of poly(N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)acrylamide-co-acrylamide) (Salecan/PDA) were fabricated via free radical polymerization for controlled release of amoxicillin. It was demonstrated that amoxicillin was efficiently encapsulated into the developed hydrogels and released in a Salecan dose-dependent and pH-sensitive manner. Furthermore, cell toxicity and adhesion assays confirmed that these drug carriers were biocompatible. Altogether, this study opens a new avenue to fabricate hydrogel devices for controlled delivery of drug.