Abstract
Engineering drug delivery systems (DDS) aim to release bioactive cargo to a specific site within the human body safely and efficiently. Hydrogels have been used as delivery matrices in different studies due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability, and versatility in biomedical purposes. Microparticles have also been used as drug delivery systems for similar reasons. The combination of microparticles and hydrogels in a composite system has been the topic of many research works. These composite systems can be injected in loco as DDS. The hydrogel will serve as a barrier to protect the particles and retard the release of any bioactive cargo within the particles. Additionally, these systems allow different release profiles, where different loads can be released sequentially, thus allowing a synergistic treatment. The reported advantages from several studies of these systems can be of great use in biomedicine for the development of more effective DDS. This review will focus on in situ injectable microparticles in hydrogel composite DDS for biomedical purposes, where a compilation of different studies will be analysed and reported herein.
Highlights
Gels 2021, 7, 147. https://doi.org/Drug delivery systems (DDS) can be defined as formulations that protect, transport, and release bioactive cargo, such as drugs or other agents, to the human body
The combination of microparticles and hydrogels as a composite system for bioactive cargo delivery has been the focus of different studies (Figure 1) [10,11]
A sequential injectable silk fibroin microspheres in an alginate hydrogel system was designed by Wu et al [42] for sequential co-delivery of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and bone morphogenetic protein 9 (BMP9)
Summary
Drug delivery systems (DDS) can be defined as formulations that protect, transport, and release bioactive cargo, such as drugs or other agents (e.g., growth factors), to the human body. The system can directly release drugs/bioactive agents to the surrounding tissues without affecting healthy tissues, preventing unwanted cytotoxicity This localised delivery will be more effective because the drugs will be unloaded directly to the targeted site, acting more efficiently. The combination of microparticles and hydrogels as a composite system for bioactive cargo delivery has been the focus of different studies (Figure 1) [10,11]. The hydrogel will serve as a double barrier for drugs/bioactive agents that are encapsulated within the particles This will guarantee a more prolonged life of the system with a more sustainable release. This review will focus on in situ injectable composite DDS for biomedical applications based on a combination of microparticles and hydrogels. The focus of this review article is the combination of microparticles (at the micrometre scale) in hydrogels
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