Drug Delivery Strategies and Biomedical Significance of Hydrogels: Translational Considerations

Abstract

Hydrogels are a promising and attractive option as polymeric gel networks, which have immensely fascinated researchers across the globe because of their outstanding characteristics such as elevated swellability, the permeability of oxygen at a high rate, good biocompatibility, easy loading, and drug release. Hydrogels have been extensively used for several purposes in the biomedical sector using versatile polymers of synthetic and natural origin. This review focuses on functional polymeric materials for the fabrication of hydrogels, evaluation of different parameters of biocompatibility and stability, and their application as carriers for drugs delivery, tissue engineering and other therapeutic purposes. The outcome of various studies on the use of hydrogels in different segments and how they have been appropriately altered in numerous ways to attain the desired targeted delivery of therapeutic agents is summarized. Patents and clinical trials conducted on hydrogel-based products, along with scale-up translation, are also mentioned in detail. Finally, the potential of the hydrogel in the biomedical sector is discussed, along with its further possibilities for improvement for the development of sophisticated smart hydrogels with pivotal biomedical functions.

Integration of hydrogels in microfabrication processes for bioelectronic medicine: Progress and outlook

“…Due to their versatility in functionalisation, shape and stimuliresponsiveness, hydrogels have been extensively explored for medical applications: from contact lenses, dentistry (Han et al, 2017), surgical adhesives (Zhang et al, 2020), cartilage treatment (Chuang et al, 2018;Wei et al, 2021), bone regeneration (Kuroda et al, 2019;Lee C.-S. et al, 2020), to drug delivery (Raina et al, 2022). Several hydrogel materials developed for tissue engineering are currently being tested in clinical trials or have been granted authorization for commercialization (Mandal et al, 2020).…”

Recent Development of Functional Chitosan-Based Hydrogels for Pharmaceutical and Biomedical Applications

“…This can be achieved through the precise control over delivery behaviors of cells and/or personalized medicine to match the individual patient. For the delivery carriers, hydrogels serve as a potential candidate and have aroused a great research interest [ 1 , 2 ].…”

Polymeric Gel Systems Cytotoxicity and Drug Release as Key Features for their Effective Application in Various Fields of Addressed Pharmaceuticals Delivery

“…According to the PubMed database, more than 200 review articles have been published over the past two years on polymer hydrogels for biomedical applications, for example, hydrogels for the manufacture of wound dressings with drug loading and wound healing effect [ 51 ], nanogels for the treatment of brain cancer [ 52 ], hydrogels for the treatment of periodontal diseases [ 53 ], mucoadhesive gel systems for the delivery of buccal preparations [ 54 ], in situ nasal gels for the treatment of neurological disorders [ 55 ], self-assembled polysaccharide-based nanogels [ 56 ], hydrogel stability studies [ 57 ]. This particular review focuses on the comparative characterization of polymer hydrogels in terms of their toxicity to cells and the drug release rate from nano-sized gel systems which are the most important features for gels pharmaceutical and biomedical applications.…”