Application Exploration of Multifunctional Hydrogels in Local Drug Delivery and Anti Inflammatory Microenvironment Construction

Yang Zhou

doi:10.62051/ijphmr.v6n6.07

Authors

Yang Zhou Department of Pharmaceutical Engineering, School of Chemistry, Chemical Engineering, and Life Sciences, Wuhan University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430070, China

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.62051/ijphmr.v6n6.07

Keywords:

Multifunctional Hydrogels, Local Drug Delivery, Anti-Inflammatory Microenvironment, Stimuli-Responsive Polymers, Macrophage Polarization, Tissue Engineering

Abstract

This paper examines the use of multi-functional hydrogels in local drug delivery and designs strategic anti-inflammatory microenvironments. Hydrogels are three-dimensional cross-linked polymeric networks with tunable properties that can serve as good biomaterials for spatiotemporal control of therapeutic agent release. At present, in terms of the main Design ideas of these biomaterials, emphasis is placed on stimuli-responsive architectures and injectable forms to achieve localised drug release at diseased tissues. In addition, this paper explores the way to integrate immunomodulatory drugs and functional nanomaterials more proactively into hydrogel carriers for treating local inflammation. Through organisation of macrophage polarisation, active remodelling of the pathological cellular niche can be achieved by the biomaterials, and they are thus transformed from passive delivery systems into dynamic therapeutic platforms. Synthesize relevant research papers to assess the effect of the above systems on chronic wound healing and tissue regeneration in solid tumour therapy. In addition, this paper will address the existing structural deficiencies and regulatory hurdles, as well as the future engineering optimisation directions required for the clinical translation of advanced hydrogel delivery systems. Standardisation of the manufacturing process and validation of long-term biological safety are still required for wider clinical application.

References

[1] Hoffman, A. S. (2012). Hydrogels for biomedical applications. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, 64, 18–23. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addr.2011.10.003

[2] Li, J., & Mooney, D. J. (2016). Designing hydrogels for controlled drug delivery. Nature Reviews Materials, 1(12), 16071. https://doi.org/10.1038/natrevmats2016.71

[3] Zhang, Y. S., & Khademhosseini, A. (2017). Advances in engineering hydrogels. Science, 356(6337), eaaf3627. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaf3627

[4] Dimatteo, R., Darling, N. J., & Segura, T. (2018). In situ forming injectable hydrogels for drug delivery and wound repair. Advanced Drug Delivery Reviews, 127, 167–184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.addr.2018.04.007

[5] Koetting, M. C., Peters, J. T., Steichen, S. D., & Peppas, N. A. (2015). Stimulus-responsive hydrogels: Theory, modern advances, and applications. Materials Science and Engineering R: Reports, 93, 1–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mser.2015.04.001

[6] Ding, C., Tong, L., Feng, J., & Fu, J. (2016). Recent advances in stimuli-responsive release function hydrogel systems for tumor treatment. Drug Delivery, 23(7), 2636–2652. https://doi.org/10.1080/10717544.2015.1129664

[7] Liu, L., Wang, W., Huang, L., Xian, Y., Ma, W., Fan, J., Li, Y., Liu, H., Zheng, Z., & Wu, D. (2024). Injectable pathological microenvironment-responsive anti-inflammatory hydrogels for ameliorating intervertebral disc degeneration. Biomaterials, 306, 122509. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2024.122509

[8] Zhao, X., Wu, H., Guo, B., Dong, R., Qiu, Y., & Ma, P. X. (2017). Antibacterial anti-oxidant electroactive injectable hydrogel as self-healing wound dressing with hemostasis and adhesiveness for cutaneous wound healing. Biomaterials, 122, 34–47. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biomaterials.2017.01.011

[9] Sonker, M., Bajpai, S., Khan, M. A., Yu, X., Tiwary, S. K., & Shreyash, N. (2021). Review of recent advances and their improvement in the effectiveness of hydrogel-based targeted drug delivery: A hope for treating cancer. ACS Applied Bio Materials, 4(12), 8080–8109. https://doi.org/10.1021/acsabm.1c01013

[10] Lu, P., Ruan, D., Huang, M., Tian, M., Zhu, K., Gan, Z., & Xiao, Z. (2024). Harnessing the potential of hydrogels for advanced therapeutic applications: Current achievements and future directions. Signal Transduction and Targeted Therapy, 9, 166. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41392-024-01848-3

[11] Chen, J., Ma, J., Xu, Z., Luo, H., & Qian, C. (2025). Advances in hydrogel-based materials for breast cancer bone metastasis: From targeted drug delivery to bone microenvironment remodeling. Frontiers in Pharmacology, 16, 1627883. https://doi.org/10.3389/fphar.2025.1627883