Multifunctional Self-Assembled Peptide Hydrogels for Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Self-assembly is a growth mechanism in nature to apply local interactions forming a minimum energy structure. Currently, self-assembled materials are considered for biomedical applications due to their pleasant features, including scalability, versatility, simplicity, and inexpensiveness. Self-assembled peptides can be applied to design and fabricate different structures, such as micelles, hydrogels, and vesicles, by diverse physical interactions between specific building blocks. Among them, bioactivity, biocompatibility, and biodegradability of peptide hydrogels have introduced them as versatile platforms in biomedical applications, such as drug delivery, tissue engineering, biosensing, and treating different diseases. Moreover, peptides are capable of mimicking the microenvironment of natural tissues and responding to internal and external stimuli for triggered drug release. In the current review, the unique characteristics of peptide hydrogels and recent advances in their design, fabrication, as well as chemical, physical, and biological properties are presented. Additionally, recent developments of these biomaterials are discussed with a particular focus on their biomedical applications in targeted drug delivery and gene delivery, stem cell therapy, cancer therapy and immune regulation, bioimaging, and regenerative medicine.

Self‐assembling tripeptide forming water‐bound channels and hydrogels

“…36 Furthermore, coassembly in the presence of drugs could be employed in therapy for topical use, as recently demonstrated for heterochiral, self-assembling tripeptides combined with anti-inflammatory 37 or antitumoral agents. 38 Indeed, peptide-based hydrogel applications in the biomedical field are vast [39][40][41] and range from wound healing 42 to tumor therapy, 43 drug delivery, 44,45 tissue engineering, 46 hemostatic activity, 47 vaccine formulations, 48 bioimaging, 49 microarray bioassays, 50 and theranostics. 51,52…”

Food Peptides for the Nutricosmetic Industry

“…The problems associated with using biopeptides in cosmetics concern the yields of the techniques with which biopeptides are produced (in terms of production quantity and concentration of biopeptides capable of expressing desirable bioactivity) and the biopeptides’ structural stability and bioactivity during product manufacturing and storage. Biopeptide activity is affected by pH, interactions with other components, temperature, water activity, and formulation processes (e.g., concentration, delivery of the active compounds, and packaging) [ 95 , 96 ].…”

Stimulus‐Responsive Hydrogels as Drug Delivery Systems for Inflammation Targeted Therapy

“…[108] There are numerous hydroxyls, carboxyl on the molecular chains of cellulose, which make this biomaterial easy to be cross-linked or react with modification agents. [109] Furthermore, the intermolecular hydrogen bonding leads cellulose-based hydrogel to better stability and mechanical property. [110] Above these, coupled with its good biodegradability and renewability, [111] cellulose-based stimuli-responsive hydrogels have attracted a large attention from researchers.…”

“…[114] According to different demands, CNCs and CNFs could be used to form self-assembly hydrogels or incorporated into various hydrogel matrix by specific cross-linked strategy to realize desired effect. [109,115] For example, a black phosphorus (BP) loaded cellulose-based stimuli-responsive hydrogels were proposed by Zhang and coworkers. This hydrogel showed favorable photothermal therapy effect for tumors due to the presence of BP.…”