02. June 2018
Any imbalance in body's pH or temperature may alter immune response and lead to conditions such as autoimmune disorders, infectious diseases, cancer and diabetes. Dual pH and thermo-responsive carriers have been striving forward as next generation therapeutic medicines as they can intelligently trigger drug release in a stimuli responsive manner with minimal toxicity, improved therapeutic efficacy and reduced exposure to normal cells. Besides polymeric nanoparticles and polymeric micelles,...
25. March 2018
Hydrogels are a unique class of three dimensional cross-linked polymeric networks that can hold a large fraction of aqueous solvents and biological fluids within their structures. Nowadays, hydrogels have attracted a growing interest of many scientists in different fields of research. Intelligent hydrogels have found a significant role in a wide variety of applications such as drug delivery systems, tissue engineering, optics, diagnostics and imaging. The purpose of this paper is to present a...
23. February 2018
Nanogels are hydrogels formed by connecting nanoscopic micelles dispersed in an aqueous medium, which give an opportunity for incorporating hydrophilic payloads to the exterior of the micellar networks and hydrophobic payloads in the core of the micelles. Biomedical and pharmaceutical applications of nano gels have been explored for tissue regeneration, wound healing, surgical device, implantation, and perusal, rectal, vaginal, ocular, and transdermal drug delivery. Although it is still in the...
27. October 2017
Polar, hydrophilic natural and synthetic polymers physically or chemically cross-linked into 3D-network and bonding a large amount of water (up to 100 g/g or higher), but insoluble in water are known as hydrogels (HG, water containing gels). The insolubility of HG in water is of importance for preservation of the system integrity.
06. September 2017
Abstract This review summarizes recent progress of the robust and smart hydrogels prepared from natural polymers including polysaccharides, proteins, etc. These hydrogels exhibit outstanding mechanical properties due to their nanofibrous aggregated microstructures and special crosslinking networks. Furthermore, these hydrogels show some smart stimuli-responsive behaviors triggered by pH, temperature, light, electricity and magnetism. Hopefully, these hydrogels derived from natural polymers with...
04. September 2017
Abstract Recently, different technologies have been used to transform active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) into new dosage forms. Engineered drug delivery systems may modify biopharmaceutical properties of the API achieving either immediate or delayed release according to specific therapeutic needs. Particularly, preprogrammed release of oral formulations delivering the drug at expected times may be useful in chronotherapy of early morning pathologies. The conventional approach when dealing...
06. November 2016
Abstract The controlled delivery of drugs can be effectively obtained using systems based on hydrogels. Tablets, to be orally administered, represent the simplest and the most traditional dosage systems based on hydrogel. Their formulation and preparation require to mix and to compress, in proper ratios, various excipients, including a swellable polymer and a drug. Carriers for controlled release systems are usually cross-linked polymers able to form hydrogels that show peculiar release...
17. October 2016
Abstract Novel kappa-carrageenan (Kc)/halloysite nanotube (HNT) nanocomposite hydrogels were synthesized via physical crosslinking for the gastro-intestinal tract (GIT) release. The influence of HNT nanoparticle content on Kc/HNT hydrogel properties such as thermal, swelling, drug loading and in vitro release was examined. Thermal results revealed that the incorporation of HNT nanoparticles enhanced the thermal stability of the nanocomposite hydrogels. Also, the nanocomposite hydrogels showed...
27. July 2016
Development of new products and materials, especially those which are based on renewable organic resources using innovative sustainable processes, represents an increasing interest in both academic and industrial research. Cellulose and its derivatives have demonstrated to be versatile materials with unique chemical structure which provides a good platform for the construction of hydrogel networks with distinctive properties as respects of swelling ability and sensibility to external stimuli....
01. April 2016
Hydrogels of a natural polysaccharide composed of Gum Arabic (GA) are appropriate materials for drug delivery, since they are water soluble, nontoxic and biocompatible. In this work, the effect of methacrylation on the properties of GA as pH-responsive hydrogel has been evaluated. Modified Gum Arabic (M-GAx), with different degrees of substitution, has been obtained by using different percentages of glycidyl methacrylate (x). It was observed that playing with the x value, gels with different...