Hydrogel characteristics resulting in increased cargo stability: a mini-review

Abstract

Over the years, hydrogels have gained significant interest within the biomedical field. The high tunability of physical and chemical properties allows them to be used for very versatile applications, such as their excellent drug delivery properties. These drug delivery properties are accompanied by increased chemical and physical stability of load while encapsulated in the hydrogel. Hydrogels have been used to carry a wide array of cargo, ranging from small molecules to biotherapeutics such as proteins, peptides or nucleic acids and have shown different characteristics that contribute to increased stability. This mini-review summarises a variety of characteristics that can be introduced in the polymer network to provide increases in chemical and structural stability of the encapsulated cargo.