Abstract
Traditional intravenous chemotherapy is relative to many systemic side effects, including myelosuppression, liver or kidney dysfunction, and neurotoxicity. As an alternative method, the injectable hydrogel can efficiently avoid these problems by releasing drugs topically at the tumor site. With advantages of localized drug toxicity in the tumor site, proper injectable hydrogel as the drug delivery system has become a research hotspot. Based on different types and stages of cancer, a variety of hydrogel drug delivery systems were developed, including thermosensitive, pH-sensitive, photosensitive, and dual-sensitive hydrogel. In this review, the latest developments of these hydrogels and related drug delivery systems were summarized. In summary, our increasing knowledge of injectable hydrogel for localized cancer therapy ensures us that it is a more durable and effective approach than traditional chemotherapy. Smart release system reacting to different stimuli at different time according to the micro-environment changes in the tumor site is a promising tendency for further studies.
Highlights
With the deterioration of the environment, the incidence of cancer is increasing year by year
It is revealed that photosensitive hydrogel is suitable for 3D cell culture model, which is vital for the study of the mechanism for tumor development
A novel pH-sensitive thermosensitive hydrogel loaded with modified doxorubicin-based prodrug nanoparticles (PDNPs), which is more efficient for tumor management than free DOX (Liu et al, 2019)
Summary
With the deterioration of the environment, the incidence of cancer is increasing year by year. Localized hydrogel reveals the ability for continuous efficient drug delivery in the tumor site In one study (Huang et al, 2016), injectable thermosensitive doxorubicin (DOX) delivery system was developed with PECT hydrogel. Contrasted with intravenous drug injections (I.V.), a thermosensitive hydrogel with nanomedicine loaded is an efficient drug delivery system, which enabled continuous drug release around tumor tissues (Huang et al, 2016).
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