An Extensive Review on Hydrogels in Pharmaceutical Drug Delivery Applications

Abstract

In recent years pharmaceutical companies are directing towards designing new pharmaceutical dosage forms of existing medications. Recent breakthroughs have been the inclusion of pharmaco-therapeutic characteristics of drug substances. Hydrogels have grown in popularity as a result of their distinct characteristics, such as structures and properties, and have demonstrated a great potential for medicinal, therapeutic, and diagnostic applications. They are semisolid gel-like preparation constitute with two or multi component system consisting of a three-dimensional network structures and hydrogels have unique property able to pick up copious amounts of water or biological fluid. Hydrogels are classified as soft materials by material scientist being prepared from natural materials such as polysaccharides and polypeptides, along with different types of synthetic hydrogels. They offer a wide range of biomedical uses due to their resemblance to biological tissue. Because of their biocompatibility and biodegradability, as well as their regulated release profile, hydrogels can be employed as a drug delivery vehicle. It has been used in many branches of medicine, including cardiology, oncology, immunology, wound healing and pain management. Other than as drug delivery system currently hydrogels are used for manufacturing contact lenses, hygiene products and tissue engineering scaffolds. It reviews various hydrogel drug delivery like oral, ocular, topical, transdermal, subcutaneous, orthotopic, rectal and intraperitonial. The principles of hydrogels, as well as current breakthroughs in the design, synthesis, functionalisation, and application of hydrogels in pharmaceutical drug delivery systems, were covered in this review. This study provides a comprehensive overview of the subject as well as a prognosis of future trends to the reader.

Keywords: Hydrogels; Drug delivery; Pharmaceutical; Medical applications; Categorisation