Therapeutic applications of hydrogels in oral drug delivery
Open accessAbstract
INTRODUCTION: Oral delivery of therapeutics, particularly protein-based pharmaceutics, is of great interest for safe and controlled drug delivery for patients. Hydrogels offer excellent potential as oral therapeutic systems due to inherent biocompatibility, diversity of both natural and synthetic material options and tunable properties. In particular, stimuli-responsive hydrogels exploit physiological changes along the intestinal tract to achieve site-specific, controlled release of protein, peptide and chemotherapeutic molecules for both local and systemic treatment applications. AREAS COVERED: This review provides a wide perspective on the therapeutic use of hydrogels in oral delivery systems. General features and advantages of hydrogels are addressed, with more considerable focus on stimuli-responsive systems that respond to pH or enzymatic changes in the gastrointestinal environment to achieve controlled drug release. Specific examples of therapeutics are given. Last, in vitro and in vivo methods to evaluate hydrogel performance are discussed. EXPERT OPINION: Hydrogels are excellent candidates for oral drug delivery, due to the number of adaptable parameters that enable controlled delivery of diverse therapeutic molecules. However, further work is required to more accurately simulate physiological conditions and enhance performance, which is important to achieve improved bioavailability and increase commercial interest.
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Hydrogels resemble physical properties of living tissues such as high water content, compactness, and low interfacial tension with aqueous media, and these properties impart applicability in the biomedical field, especially for drug delivery.
“Hydrogels resemble some physical properties of living tissues such as high-water content, compactness, and low interfacial tension with aqueous media, and those properties of hydrogels impart their great applicability in the bio-medical field, especially for drug delivery [11,12,13,14].”
From Review of Stimuli-Responsive Polymers in Drug Delivery and Textile Application (2019) · cites this paper as [13]
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References 155 · Cited by 354
- Authors
- Sharpe, L. A., Daily, A. M., Horava, S. D., & Peppas, N. A.
- Affiliations
- The University of Texas at Austin (US)
- Venue
- Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery
- Publisher
- Informa UK Limited
- Published
- 2014-05-21
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 6
- Pages
- 901-915
- ISSN
- 1742-5247 (ISSN-L)
- 1744-7593
- PMC
- PMC4549393
- OpenAlex
- W2030431187
- Cited by
- 354
- References
- 155
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 30 · 2023: 39 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 40 · 2020: 35 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 32 · 2017: 23 · 2016: 15 · 2015: 13 · 2014: 5
- FWCI
- 1.77
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
- Locations
- Expert Opinion on Drug Delivery (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation
- National Institutes of Health (5r01eb000246-20)
- National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering (5-R01-EB-000246-20, R01-EB000246)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmaceutical Science › Advanced Drug Delivery Systems
- Life Sciences › Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology › Molecular Medicine › Hydrogels: synthesis, properties, applications
- Life Sciences › Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics › Pharmaceutical Science › Drug Solubulity and Delivery Systems
- Keywords
- hydrogels, oral drug delivery, stimuli-responsive hydrogels, therapeutic proteins, peptide therapeutics, chemotherapeutic drugs, controlled drug release, pH-responsive drug release, enzyme-responsive drug release, gastrointestinal environment, bioavailability
- MeSH terms
- Administration, Oral, Animals, Delayed-Action Preparations, Pharmaceutical Preparations, Humans, Hydrogen-Ion Concentration, Peptides, Proteins, Drug Delivery Systems, Hydrogels
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