Therapeutic effect of imatinib-loaded hydrogels on leukemia by inhibiting excessive apoptosis of white blood cells

Chronic myelocytic leukemia (CML) refers to a malignant proliferative disease of the bone marrow characterized by abnormalities of multipotent stem cells on the Philadelphia chromosome and accounts for approximately 20% of all leukemias. Imatinib is widely used in the treatment of CML patients because of its unique mechanism of action and high specificity. In this study, imatinib-loaded hydrogels were prepared from the natural polysaccharide hyaluronic acid and carboxymethyl chitosan. SEM results showed that the hydrogels had a macroporous structure with interconnected pores inside. CCK-8 results indicated that the hydrogels could significantly reduce the viability of leukocytes. In addition, the hydrogel increased the expression of BCL-2 with increasing dose and is promising to be used as a drug carrier material for leukemia treatment.