Ziba Gharehnazifam - School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Majid Baniassadia - School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Mostafa Baghani - School of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Silk fibroin hydrogel nano species are used in this study as a drug carrier for vincristine. The deformation and diffusion fields are paired in a multi-physics model to optimize drug delivery. A drug-loaded polymer matrix is used to study the mass transfer and chemical behavior of the drug. Several experiments are performed to evaluate the model's performance. The silk hydrogel syringes loaded with vincristine were injected into PBS and enzyme solutions to monitor drug release rate for ۴۰ days. After about ۴۰ days in enzyme solution, the silk fibroin hydrogel was deswollen as shown by the computational simulation and laboratory tests. As a result of degradation, vincristine drug release was faster and higher in comparison to PBS solution. In enzyme solution, over ۸۰% of the drug was released in the first five days, but only ۱۰% was released in PBS solution after ۴۰ days. A good agreement was found between model predictions and experimental results regarding deswelling behavior and drug release rates. This can be used as a reliable tool for future predictions.

Hydrogel, Sustained drug delivery, Affinity based diffusion, Degradation, Hydrogel Swelling.