A Review on biomedical application of polysaccharide-based hydrogels with a focus on drug delivery systems

Over the last years of research on drug delivery systems (DDSs), natural polymer-based 18 hydrogels have shown many scientific advances due to their intrinsic properties and a wide variety 19 of potential applications. While drug efficacy and cytotoxicity play a key role, adopting a proper 20 DDS is crucial to preserve the drug along the route of administration and possess desired therapeu-21 tic effect at the targeted site. Thus, drug delivery technology can be used to overcome the difficulties 22 of maintaining drugs at a physiologically related serum concentration for prolonged periods. Due 23 to their outstanding biocompatibility, polysaccharides have been thoroughly researched as a bio-24 logical material for DDS advancement. To formulate a modified DDS, polysaccharides can cross-25 link with different molecules, resulting in hydrogels. According to our recent findings, targeted 26 drug delivery at a certain spot occurs due to external stimulation like temperature, pH, glucose, or 27 light. As an adjustable biomedical device, the hydrogel has tremendous potential for nanotech ap-28 plications in the involved health area like pharmaceutical and biomedical engineering. An overview 29 of hydrogel characteristics and functionalities is provided in this review. We focus on discussing 30 the various kinds of hydrogel-based on their potential for effectively delivering drugs that are made 31 of polysaccharides