Soft Matter for Biomedical Applications
Chapter 21: Polysaccharide-based Hydrogels for the Controlled Delivery of Therapeutic Biomacromolecules
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Published:07 Jun 2021
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Special Collection: 2021 ebook collection
M. I. Rial-Hermida, A. Rey-Rico, N. Carballo-Pedrares, J. F. Mano, 2021. "Polysaccharide-based Hydrogels for the Controlled Delivery of Therapeutic Biomacromolecules", Soft Matter for Biomedical Applications, Helena S Azevedo, João F Mano, João Borges
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In the last ten years, polysaccharide hydrogels have been one of the most promising systems to deliver therapeutic proteins, including hormones, growth factors, gene vectors, or monoclonal antibodies, due to their capacity to avoid or slow down the biodegradation of these biomolecules and/or sustain their release. The use of biodegradable and bioabsorbable natural polymers for the preparation of drug delivery systems is a strategy that has been widely used over the last 50 years. Of note, some of these polysaccharides are sensitive to changes in the biological media (such as pH, temperature, ion concentration changes, etc.) also being susceptible...